photo by: Parker I. Johnson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas senior middle blocker Aisha Aiono (24) hits the ball on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026 at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence.

Late in the season, one disappointing result can often have a lasting negative effect on a team’s performance.

For Kansas volleyball, however, Thursday’s loss at Colorado served as a learning experience, and the No. 14-ranked Jayhawks responded in impressive fashion at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Sunday, sweeping No. 17 TCU (25-16, 25-22, 25-12) for the second time this season.

“We saw what our weaknesses were, and that’s just something that we kind of look to learn from, not dwell on,” junior libero Olivia Hasbrook said. “We knew we had a quick turnaround, so we just wanted to learn from that.

Added head coach Matt Ulmer: “Sports are funny, you know, because you can lose confidence very fast… (I’m) really proud. I thought this would be a really cool opportunity for us to see if we can grow up a little bit and mature and rebound and come back against a very good team.”

The Jayhawks’ success started at the service line, as they recorded 12 aces, which is tied for their most in a three-set match this season. On Thursday, KU had just three, tied for their fewest in a match.

Serving has been an emphasis for the Jayhawks all year, and the practices leading up to Sunday’s match played a factor in the team getting back to an aggressive mindset.

“We worked on it a lot the other day,” Hasbrook said. “We talked about how our serving on Thursday was just kind of soft, kind of right on them, and Colorado actually passed the best that any team has passed off our serves.”

Freshman Taylor Stanley led the offensive charge with 11 kills, but it was senior middle blocker Aisha Aiono who took over for KU with nine kills and six blocks against a TCU attack that ranked fourth in the Big 12 in hitting percentage (.267) coming into the match.

“She just cares so much,” Hasbrook said of Aiono. “She’s such a calming presence on our team, and she works her butt off like no one else… She has had to sacrifice stuff for our team because that’s how much she cares about this and how much she wants to be there for us.”

Junior pin hitter Grace Nelson opened the match with a service ace right out of the gate, setting the tone for KU’s success as the Jayhawks recorded four aces in the early stages to lead 15-10 at the technical timeout.

“We were very aggressive from the service line from the beginning, and to me, that’s always the sign for us,” Ulmer said. “The rest of our game was clicking and so that was great to see.”

The Jayhawk offense stayed hot for the rest of the set, posting a .423 hitting percentage as Stanley, Aiono and Reese Ptacek all put down three-plus kills to take the opening game, 25-16.

KU was forced to burn a timeout early in the second set after a 4-0 TCU run gave the visitors a 7-3 advantage. The stoppage worked for a moment as the Jayhawks pulled within one, but a pair of timely scoring runs pushed the Horned Frogs’ lead back to 16-12.

It was there, however, that all the momentum was flipped. A service error from former Jayhawk Molly McCarthy soon turned into an 8-0 KU scoring run that featured two aces from Messer, as well as blocks from the tandem of Aiono and Stanley against All-American outside hitter Evan Hendrix.

“We did about as good as we could on her,” Ulmer said of Hendrix, who led TCU with 10 kills. “A lot of that started with the serve, but this was Taylor’s best blocking match. She was consistently lining up, her hands were in good places, she made a lot of good touches.

“Again, it forced their outsides to have to make some different swings than they wanted to, and then it led to some errors, especially with Evan.”

The Jayhawks’ defense was tough at the net down the stretch and forced a few attack errors, holding the Horned Frogs to a .023 hitting percentage in the second game as Stanley gave KU a 2-0 match lead with her eighth kill.

Another lengthy scoring run by the Jayhawks put them ahead early in the third, rattling off eight straight points to begin the set with Nelson at the service line. TCU pulled within five on two occasions, but the set belonged to KU from start to finish, as the Jayhawks hit .619 with 14 kills and five aces to complete the sweep, 25-12.

“It was kind of just a mental thing,” Hasbrook said. “We just talked about how gritty we wanted to be. We wanted to be the team that isn’t going to let off, and especially going into the last two weekends of Big 12 play and going into December, we want to be playing our best volleyball.”

The Jayhawks will wrap up the home schedule on Friday at 7:30 p.m. against West Virginia for senior night, before finishing the regular season with a two-match road trip to Arizona.