The Kansas volleyball team fueled itself for tonight’s 8:30 tipoff in a national semifinal vs. Nebraska with a 4:30 meal at the Embassy Suites, the team hotel. The athletes filled their plates by choosing from: salad, roasted-potato wedges, small sirloin strips, small chicken breasts, mixed vegetables (squash, zucchini, carrots), wild rice and dinner rolls.

Kansas volleyball riding in style with police escort to arena. #KUvolleyball pic.twitter.com/i5k6hJaakg

— Tom Keegan (@TomKeeganLJW) December 18, 2015

The close-knit group of competitors began boarding the team bus outside the hotel at 5:45. Two police squad cars — the first a sedan, the second an SUV — turned their lights on at 5:53 and as the lead car turned onto 10th Street its siren began to blare and the six-block, six-minute police escort to the CenturyLink Center began.

Kansa player's from left, Addison Barry, Ainise Havili, and Janae Hall, make a Facebook pic as they walk down the red carpet as Kansas and Nebraska matched up on Thursday December 17, 2015 at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb.

The Jayhawks then went from the bus into the arena and onto a red carpet to start a walk (that Journal-World photographer Richard Gwin captured with above photo) to their locker room to get ready for to play a volleyball match in front of a standing-room only crowd in excess of 17,000 people. The winner advances to Saturday’s national-championship match. The loser goes home after an outstanding season.