The 15th-ranked Kansas volleyball team battled a pair of top-five foes to begin its season at the Opening Spike Classic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but lost in four sets to each.

The Jayhawks had their fair share of opportunities to take the upper hand against both host No. 4 Pitt (on Friday) and No. 5 Stanford (on Sunday), but never pulled ahead in the match.

KU led 23-21 in the third set at a 1-1 tie with the Panthers and then conceded four straight points, beginning with a service error, to drop the game. The final outcome on Friday was 17-25, 25-14, 23-25, 20-25.

On Sunday, the Jayhawks reached set point in the first set on a kill by Kenzie Dean, but an attack error from Grace Nelson and a bad set by Logan Bell allowed the Cardinal to surge ahead before they ultimately won 27-25. KU fell in a narrow second game, dominated the third and then lost in the fourth again for a score of 25-27, 22-25, 25-14, 21-25.

Opposite hitter Taylor Stanley, the Big 12’s preseason freshman of the year, lived up to billing with 15 kills against Pitt and 21 more against Stanford on solid efficiency. Middle blocker Reese Ptacek was limited by the Panthers but bounced back with 12 kills on 24 attacks against the Cardinal.

USC transfer setter Reese Messer had a 38-assist, 14-dig double-double against Stanford. Junior outside hitter Kenzie Dean impressed in some extended action over the course of both matches, hitting .208 with 2.25 kills per set.

The Jayhawks’ first set of the season turned on an 8-2 run led by outside hitter Blaire Bayless that gave Pitt a 16-9 lead. The Panthers’ reigning back-to-back national player of the year, Olivia Babcock, sealed it with consecutive aces.

Dean and Stanley, plus some tough defense at the net, gave the Jayhawks a lead in their second-set victory. Ptacek took part in four blocks during the set. KU then played from behind by a narrow margin for much of the third game before going ahead for the first time at 21-20 after three straight points, including two kills by Dean. Heidi Devers committed the key service error at 23-21 — one of the Jayhawks’ 17 to just eight by Pitt — that gave Bayless, Babcock and the Panthers the chance to go up 2-1.

A mid-set run nearly did KU in once again in the fourth, this time five straight, including a pair of blocks, to go from 11-10 to 16-10. The Jayhawks got back within 18-17 with kills by Aisha Aiono and Grace Nelson, but a service error by Olivia Hasbrook at 20-19 led to consecutive kills for Bayless as Pitt soon took the win.

The Jayhawks were better at serving against Stanford, and Ptacek even recorded five aces, but it wasn’t enough to swing the second match in their favor.

They led 14-10 on an attack error by Ipar Kurt before conceding five straight. Later, with KU ahead 22-20, Stanley was responsible for an ace and a service error to make it 23-21, before Stanford responded with a kill by Jordyn Harvey and got another point on an attack error by Ptacek.

The Cardinal’s 27-25 victory came about as a result of a kill by Lizzy Andrew and a three-player block on Stanley by Andrew, Kurt and Logan Parks.

KU again lost a four-point lead midway through the second game, but still had a shot down 22-21 before a pair of late service errors and a kill by Kurt.

The third set featured some of the Jayhawks’ best volleyball of the weekend, including a 6-0 run with back-to-back aces by Ptacek, before they won 25-14 on another ace by Messer. However, they couldn’t fully transfer that momentum into the fourth set, a back-and-forth battle that was tied at 16 after a service error by Stanford’s Julia Blyashov, only for the Cardinal to edge back in front. An attack error by Kurt had KU down just 20-19, but the Cardinal scored five of the final seven points, including two kills by Blyashov to end the match.

Blyashov had 14 kills and 14 digs for the Cardinal; four Stanford players in total recorded double-digit digs as KU hit .164.

KU (0-2) will head out on the road again to face Lipscomb at 6 p.m. Central time on Thursday.