KU’s Bechard named Big 12 volleyball coach of the year; 3 Jayhawks named to 1st team
Kansas volleyball players Ayah Elnady, Camryn Turner and Reagan Cooper were named first-team all-Big 12, the conference announced Tuesday.
KU’s London Davis earned second-team all-league honors while Turner was the league’s setter of the year. Raegan Burns was named to the all-rookie team.
Coach Ray Bechard was named Big 12 coach of the year for the fifth time.
“We’re excited about all of the postseason awards,” Bechard said Tuesday. His Jayhawks (23-5), the second-place team in the conference regular-season race, will take on Omaha in a first-round NCAA Tournament match at 7 p.m., Thursday at KU’s Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. The match is sold out, KU recently announced.
“I think that’s just a reflection of ... this (19-player) group, how hard they’ve collectively worked and the result of a great, great season. There have been great individual and team performances within that,” Bechard added.
Kansas State senior Aliyah Carter was named all-league first team. K-State’s Sydney Bolding and Mackenzie Morris earned second-team honors. KSU’s Aniya Clinton made the all-rookie team.
Kansas recorded four ranked wins, including two over No. 20 Houston, one over No. 23 Baylor and one over No. 13 BYU on the road. The 14 wins (against four league losses) are the most wins for KU in conference play since 2016 when Kansas had 15 conference wins and won its first-ever Big 12 title.
Kansas also qualified for its 12th NCAA Tournament in program history and will be making its third consecutive appearance. All 12 appearances have been under Bechard, the first in 2003. The three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament are tied for the second most in program history (2003-05). Kansas went to six consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2012-17.
KU has won 14 consecutive matches at Horejsi Center. That is the sixth longest active home winning streak in Division I. The 14 home victories are the most since the 2015 season when KU had 15 home wins.
The last time Bechard won this award was in 2016. He also was coach of the year in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Turner, a junior from Topeka, averaged a league-leading 10.71 assists per set. She is the first Jayhawk to win setter of the year since Ainise Havili won the award three times from 2015-17. Kansas’ Erin McNorton also received the honor in 2013. The Big 12 setter of the year has been a Kansas player in five of the 12 years the award has been presented.
Turner averaged 13.03 assists per set and 14.02 kills per set in conference play. The junior also posted the second-best digs per set average for the Jayhawks (3.02 average across 103 sets) behind libero Raegan Burns.
Elnady, a junior from Cairo, Egypt, posted 3.57 kills per set across the 99 sets. Elnady had double-digit kills 20 times, including a season-high 25 in Kansas’ five-set victory at Iowa State. She led the Jayhawks in aces per set with her 0.26 average, posted the second-most points per set with 4.05 and averaged the fifth most digs per set with 2.26.
Cooper was a unanimous first-team selection. A graduate transfer from Texas Tech, she ended the regular season with a team-leading 3.76 kills per set and 4.07 points per set, which landed her in seventh and 10th place in the Big 12. Her hitting percentage of .339 ranked eighth in the Big 12.
Cooper, a Rowlett, Texas, native, hit above .400 in 10 matches and .500 or better four times.
Second-teamer Davis, a junior from Galena, Ohio, had a .294 hitting percentage, 2.77 kills per set-average and a new-career best of 28 kills against K-State. She had 13 double-digit kill performances.
Burns, a true freshman from Lafayette, Indiana, was the team’s primary defensive specialist, averaging the most digs per set with 3.56, which ranked 10th in the Big 12. Burns also had 12 service aces and three-consecutive libero kills, all three against ranked teams (Houston, Houston, Texas).
If KU defeats Omaha on Thursday it would face the winner of a first-round match between Penn State and Yale at 5:30 p.m. Friday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
