OMAHA, Neb. - After reverse sweeping Kansas City to claim the Summit League Title and punch their ticket to the first Division I NCAA Tournament in program history, the Omaha Mavericks will take on Kansas, the No. 15 team in the country and No. 4 team in the upper right quadrant of the bracket, this Thursday at 7 p.m. in Lawrence, Kan.

Quick Hits

• The Summit League Regular Season and Tournament champions had their best defensive showing of the season in the title match, posting their most digs in a match since 2017 with 108, and their most total blocks since 2018 with 18.
• All-Tournament honorees Shayla McCormick, Rachel Fairbanks, and tournament MVP McKenna Ruch led the defensive efforts vs. Kansas City, with McCormick and Fairbanks both setting career highs in digs with 30 and 27, respectively, while Ruch set the all-time Omaha single-match record with 14 blocks.
• Offensively, the Mavericks were also dominant, with five players recording double-digit kills in a single match for just the sixth time in the D1 era. McCormick (13 kills), Fairbanks (15 kills), and Ruch (15 kills) led the way as each had a double-double, while Kali Jurgensmeier (11 kills) and Amanda Hardt (11 kills) rounded out the quintet. 
• Rookie setters Ivy Leuck and Olivia Tukuafu played well in their first championship match, as Leuck earned her third double-double of the year with 24 assits and 13 digs, and Tukuafu came a dig short of a double-double with 30 assists.
• Erica Fava also had double-digit digs with 21, as well as an ace to give her a team-high 38 on the year.
• The Mavericks had five All-Summit honorees this season, with Ruch and McCormick both earning First Team honors for the second year in a row as the former led the team with 291 kills and 127 blocks, and the latter posted 284 kills and a team-high 304 digs. Fairbanks earned an Honorable Mention with career highs in kills (228) and digs (299). Hardt and Emily Huss made the All-Freshman team, as Hardt totaled 256 kills and Huss had 91 total blocks and the most blocks per set in the conference with 1.25.

Scouting Kansas
Ranked as the No. 15 team in the final AVCA rankings and entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed in the upper right quadrant of the bracket, Kansas went 23-5 with a 14-4 conference record to place second in the Big 12 in its best finish since 2016.

Jayhawks To Watch
Five Jayhawks earned Big 12 postseason honors, headlined by Head Coach Ray Bechard's fifth Big 12 Coach of the Year award and junior Camryn Turner being named Big 12 Setter of the Year and First Team All-Big 12. Turner led the conference with 10.71 assists per set and 1103 total assists, as well as recording 20 service aces and 311 digs (3.56 D/S).

Junior outside hitter Ayah Elnady and graduate student outside hitter Reagan Cooper were both named First Team All-Big 12 too, with Elnady first on the team with 353 kills, 20 double-digit kills matches, and 26 aces, and Cooper pacing the Jayhawks with 3.76 K/S (323 kills) and a .339 attack percentage.

Junior opposite hitter London Davis earned Second Team honors after finishing the season with 73 total blocks, 285 kills, and a .294 hitting percentage. Finally, rookie libero Raegan Burns was named to the All-Freshman team with a team-high 356 digs, good for 10th in the Big 12.

Series History
After falling 3-0 to the Jayhawks in the beginning of the season, Omaha dropped to 2-10 all-time against Kansas, last winning all the way back in November 1982. In their first meeting of the season, Jurgensmeier led the Mavericks with eight kills and McCormick was tops in digs with nine, while Cooper paced the Jayhawks with 14 kills and Burns was first in digs with 15.