photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

KU volleyball head coach Matt Ulmer watches as his team warms up prior to his first at home on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence.

The Kansas volleyball coaching staff isn’t starting fresh this offseason like it did last year, but it still underwent some significant changes after Matt Ulmer’s first season in charge and the Jayhawks’ run to the Sweet 16.

In rapid succession in early February, associate head coach Matt Werle and assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Arica Nassar left for jobs in the Big Ten Conference. Werle took over as head coach at UCLA, while Nassar took an assistant coach role at Minnesota.

Ulmer filled both positions in short order with new associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Connor Wexter, most recently of James Madison, and assistant coach Ainise Havili, a legendary former KU setter who has been playing professionally in Major League Volleyball and also coached at Butler last season.

Ulmer went into detail about the series of staff moves on a recent offseason episode of his “Hawk Talk” radio show.

DEPARTURES

Ulmer said on the show that he was never under any illusions about being able to retain Werle for an extended period of time.

Werle had been a highly successful men’s volleyball coach at Grand Canyon, which at one point in 2024 held a national No. 1 ranking, before leaving for Lawrence and the women’s game.

“He thought it’d be a couple years,” Ulmer said. “I was like, ‘Well, let’s see how we do.’ I feel like if we do well, he’s such a charismatic guy, so good at what he does, I felt like if he got on the phone or in an interview with somebody that how could they not like him?”

He said Werle ultimately had multiple opportunities and that UCLA was the right fit for his family.

As for Nassar, whose move he described as “climbing the ladder” to becoming the first assistant for the Gophers, he said it was a good step toward becoming a head coach one day.

“Keegan (Cook), who’s the head coach there, he knows how lucky he is to have her and how wonderful she is,” Ulmer said. “… I think again, for both of them, just really awesome continuations for their career and where they want to go.”

He said KU will miss having Werle and Nassar around and will cheer for them as long as they don’t go up against the Jayhawks.

ARRIVALS

Ulmer and Wexter go back quite a long way. Wexter followed in Ulmer’s footsteps as a setter for the men’s volleyball team at Division III Carthage College. Ulmer and his mother Leanne, who is the women’s coach at Carthage, were involved in hiring a men’s coach, a position for which they interviewed Wexter.

“It was just cool to see him in a different light, in a professional setting,” Ulmer said. “And he blew me away in that. I was just so impressed by him, and then we’ve been friends, and so I’ve just, again, hopefully been some sort of mentor to him throughout his career.”

After serving as a graduate assistant at Carthage, Wexter went on to Loyola-Chicago and later worked as the vice president of a club volleyball program before becoming an assistant coach at JMU.

“He’s really impressive,” Ulmer said. “And as a recruiting coordinator, he’s dialed in. I mean, he is a hustler. He’s going to give everything that he has.”

Ulmer noted that as Werle did, Wexter also brings some perspective from the men’s volleyball ranks, which could be helpful for a KU squad with increased physicality next season.

Meanwhile, the plan is for Havili to wrap up her season with the Indy Ignite — one of MLV’s top teams — and then join KU “once she’s retired,” Ulmer said.

“Really excited to get Ainise in the gym to get to know her even better to see where her strengths are going to complement the staff and how we can use her best,” Ulmer said. “But most importantly I’m just really excited for the team to have her.”

Havili will join her former teammates, Maggie Bowen and Tori Hohlios, on Ulmer’s staff. Ulmer said that Havili’s pride for KU is so strong that it “hits you in the face,” and that she can serve as a great mentor for the current Jayhawks.

Along with Bowen (director of operations), Hohlios (technical coordinator), Wexter and Havili, Ulmer’s staff for 2026 also includes Erika Dillard, the returning associate head coach and defensive coordinator.