by LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 10 Kansas volleyball suffered its first home loss of the season to No. 5 Texas, 3-2 (20-25, 25-20, 30-28, 22-25, 15-9) on Wednesday night in front of a sold-out crowd at Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
In the Jayhawks’ first five-set match of the season, sophomore right-side hitter reached 20 kills for the third time in the last four matches and sophomore setter Ainise Havili set a career high in assists. Payne finished with 23 kills on a .288 hitting percentage. Havili followed-up her 57-assist performance at Oklahoma last Saturday with 67 assists on Wednesday night, adding 13 digs for her ninth double-double of the season.
Despite the loss, Kansas (22-2, 10-2 Big 12) remained highly efficient on offense, recording a .307 team hitting percentage against a Texas team that entered Wednesday holding opponents to a Big 12-leading .163 clip. The Jayhawks also out-gained Texas in kills, 77 to 64, but were undone by 17 service errors.
Texas (21-2, 11-1) was led by a pair of 21-kill efforts from Amy Neal and Paulina Perieto Cerame. Wednesday marked UT’s 24th consecutive win over Kansas, dating back to 2003.Senior outside hitter Tiana Dockery (Navajo) shook off the cobwebs of a career -.007 hitting percentage against the Longhorns to post her third double-double of the season on Wednesday with 18 kills on a .441 hitting percentage and 13 digs. Junior middle blocker Tayler Soucie finished with 16 kills on 23 swings for a .652 hitting percentage – not recording an attacking error until midway through the fifth set.
No. 10 Kansas plays its second-to-last home match of the season against TCU on Saturday at 1 p.m.
