Optimistic for the Future
Apr 29, 2025 | Volleyball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
It's been a time of growth this offseason for the Kansas State women's volleyball team as Jason Mansfield heads toward his third season as head coach. After K-State posted a 16-11 record, including a 10-8 mark in the Big 12 Conference in 2023, the Wildcats had an up-and-down campaign last season that ended with a 10-17 record, including an 8-10 mark in league play.
Mansfield is optimistic for the future.
"We want to keep moving upward," he said. "I have high expectations for this group. We have good experience, we have good freshmen coming in, and we have good balance and motivation to be great. I'm excited for the fall."
Mansfield, who led the Wildcats to a record-setting five top 25 wins in 2023 and saw his team finish excruciatingly short of a NCAA Tournament berth, added Kelly O'Connor as assistant coach and Andrew Mabry as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the upcoming year.
K-State is set to return several key letterwinners, including five seniors, and will welcome six talented true freshmen. The Wildcats open their season against UMBC on August 29 in the K-State Invitational at Morgan Family Arena. The Wildcats' schedule features six teams (seven matches) that qualified for the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship, including five that finished ranked in the final AVCA Top 25 poll.
Mansfield sat down with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen to discuss the offseason and look toward the 2025 campaign.
D. Scott Fritchen: How would you describe last season, the challenges, the ins and outs of fighting for success on the court?
Jason Mansfield: We just never got a chance to settle into a lineup. We felt like the six seniors and five juniors, we had really good experience, and we played in the non-conference schedule and battled with Purdue and USC and some other teams, but we never got a chance – even in the preseason – to really settle down and figure out a lineup. We had so many injuries. It was disappointing. That's the word that comes to mind. It's not what we expected. I feel badly for the seniors, who had higher expectations.
Fritchen: As you went back and rewatched matches and delved into analytics, what were some of your biggest takeaways?
Mansfield: Very similar to the year before, honestly. We needed to be more balanced offensively. We needed to set our middles more and our opposites more, and we just ended up setting up outside hitters a bunch. We had good outside hitters but it's really difficult to put a lot of pressure on those girls. That was two years in a row of not really having the middle presence that we want. We've been working on that quite a bit. That's the first thing that comes to mind, because that's how you score the most points, is trying to get kills. That's what we're working on.
Fritchen: You return associate head coach Steve Astor, bring in assistant coach Kelly O'Connor and Andrew Mabry serves as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
What do you admire about Steve Astor and how he's been able to positively affect the program?
Mansfield: It's endless. What he does for us from a recruiting standpoint, from scouting, in the gym teaching, he's elite at all those areas, and it's a blessing to have him and to keep him. He's a big part of what we're trying to do. His knowledge of the game, his ability to see things clearly and convey that to the girls, whether it's a skill, a scouting report, he's just elite at a bunch of things, and a big reason we have the 10 kids we have coming in the next two years. This is the first big freshman class we have coming in this year – six kids – and he's a big part of that.
Fritchen: What do you admire about Kelly O'Connor and what does she bring to the table as an assistant coach?
Mansfield: When I was looking for assistants, my guiding principle is I wanted teachers, and really good coaches who knew how to teach the game and loved learning and loved connecting with athletes. She's all of those things. She can teach any skill, any position with confidence, and just her ability to connect with the girls right away in the gym and outside the gym has been awesome. That's certainly something I want all our coaches to be able to do. The most important thing is to teach and to develop and to connect with them on a personal level. She's really elite at those things, and she wore a lot of hats as associate head coach at Nebraska-Omaha, and that allows her to do a lot of things.
Fritchen: What do you admire about Andrew Mabry and what makes him a good assistant coach and recruiting coordinator?
Mansfield: He's been a head coach for boys and girls in high school and in club and is used to wearing different hats as far as teaching, developing and running programs. He's elite at coaching setters, and he's taken over recruiting, so that's a new thing for him, and he's doing a great job with it organizationally, and having those personal connections with coaches and club coaches. The whole staff, there's a maturity and experience that we all have coaching for a long time and loving what we do and developing our own style but having the same principle as far as why we love what we do. He's a big part of what we're doing moving forward. He's taking over the offensive stuff and we're already a lot better in that space.
Fritchen: I understand K-State played Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri in the spring season. What stood out to you in each of those contests?
Mansfield: I wanted to play the most elite programs we could play. To play three SEC teams was awesome. Each had different styles. We played four sets to 25 and one set to 15 against all of them. We beat Oklahoma 17-15 in the fifth, beat Arkansas all four sets to 25 and then lost 17-15, and then beat Missouri 15-11 in the fifth. There was a lot of good volleyball against a certain opponent that does things in a unique way, and you have to figure it out a little bit as the matches go on. Those were physical teams, and we had to figure out how to play against them and what they were good at and how to slow them down. I loved it. It's been the best spring of all three so far. We're more organized, we have five kids that are going to be seniors, and our five juniors have been incredible, and then Symone Sims has a ton of experience from her sophomore year. The six of them led what we were doing in the gym and a big reason why we won those matches in the spring.
Fritchen: Who are some players who've most stood out to you so far?
Mansfield: We start with our seniors — Ava LeGrand, Jordyn Williams, Brenna Schmidt, Shaylee Myers and Aniya Clinton. They've all played a lot of college volleyball the last couple years, and they all had to take their game to the next level in order for us to be the team we need to be, and they've all done that, and Symone Sims as well. So, the six of them have played a lot of volleyball. It's really cool to see their skills go up and their leadership go up. That's a big thing. But, man, Ava is doing a great job with sets, and Aniya and Shaylee are really, really dynamic on the outside. Ava has done good work there. Symone has really taken her game to the next level. She's always been an elite defender, but she's really doing a great job serve/receive and system setting. Brenna and Jordyn are work horses. They work really hard and get up really quick, and they're trying to close the block. They're like the offensive linemen in football in that they do a lot of things nobody sees because they have to really work hard in the trenches. What a blessing to have these six girls that have all played quite a bit, and they're very cohesive together. That's a big reason we've been successful in the spring. The six of them play really well together.
Fritchen: Who are some players K-State fans might not know about who are ready to emerge?
Mansfield: It probably starts with Reagan Fox. The last two years she's really been working hard to try and figure out a way to get onto the court. She's really stepped up her game and she's playing right side a lot for us now. She's just somebody that we're going to need. She's the Kansas/Missouri girl, and she's been waiting a couple years to play. She redshirted two years ago and played a little bit last year. There's Emerson Van Lannen, who redshirted last year, and she's stepping into more of a role as a setter and as a defender. Then Lauren Schneider has really taken her game to the next level. She's really dynamic, a smaller attacker, who's doing a good job out there. Then we have six freshmen coming in. I watched five of them play this week in their last tournament. The gym is going to be a lot better with those girls getting in here.
Fritchen: At this early stage, what kind of potential does this team possess for next season?
Mansfield: I see a lot of potential. I'm a pretty optimistic person, so all three years that I've been here, I've believed that we can be great. I think after we played these three spring matches, it just confirms that we can play with anyone, and we can be successful if people are improving and we're playing together. That's the big thing, is can we play together, and can we feed off each other's energy, and inspire each other to be great. There's enough talent here to be great. Whether that's make the tournament, whether that's make a deep run in the tournament, that's always the goal. The goal is to make deep runs in the tournament. That expectation will be the same. We want to be more process oriented, but the idea of this program being successful every year regardless of who we have is the goal. We want to keep moving upward. I have high expectations for this group. We have good experience, we have good freshmen coming in, and we have good balance and motivation to be great. I'm excited for the fall.
Fritchen: What's next as we head into May? What do the next few months look like for you, the volleyball players and the program?
Mansfield: After we play the Alumni Match on Saturday, we can't coach them until August 8th. What they do in the summer is on them. It's different in basketball and football and some other sports, but for us, we have to trust and believe that they're going to work out and try to find ways to play volleyball. Most of them will come back in July for camp, and they can train and do open gyms. We have this wonderful facility that they can play in if they want. That's pretty much what it looks like. We have to be hands off. Those are the rules. Just a lot of trust that there's good culture, and that culture is going to be them hopefully playing together and working hard over the summer.
Fritchen: What's the feeling like walking into the Morgan Family Arena each day? Do you sometimes still have to pinch yourself over the facility?
Mansfield: I mean, it's home now. For the first year, I was just in awe, like, 'This is where I get to go to work.' How blessed I am. Now it just feels like home. We've played some matches in here that have kind of shaped what this program is in this arena and what it can be. We've had some glimpses. It's just such a blessing every time we come in here and every time I walk through those doors, turn and look, and realize this is where we get to train and play. It makes me excited for the fall to come to play matches in here. It just feels like home now.
It's been a time of growth this offseason for the Kansas State women's volleyball team as Jason Mansfield heads toward his third season as head coach. After K-State posted a 16-11 record, including a 10-8 mark in the Big 12 Conference in 2023, the Wildcats had an up-and-down campaign last season that ended with a 10-17 record, including an 8-10 mark in league play.
Mansfield is optimistic for the future.
"We want to keep moving upward," he said. "I have high expectations for this group. We have good experience, we have good freshmen coming in, and we have good balance and motivation to be great. I'm excited for the fall."
Mansfield, who led the Wildcats to a record-setting five top 25 wins in 2023 and saw his team finish excruciatingly short of a NCAA Tournament berth, added Kelly O'Connor as assistant coach and Andrew Mabry as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the upcoming year.
K-State is set to return several key letterwinners, including five seniors, and will welcome six talented true freshmen. The Wildcats open their season against UMBC on August 29 in the K-State Invitational at Morgan Family Arena. The Wildcats' schedule features six teams (seven matches) that qualified for the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship, including five that finished ranked in the final AVCA Top 25 poll.
Mansfield sat down with K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen to discuss the offseason and look toward the 2025 campaign.
D. Scott Fritchen: How would you describe last season, the challenges, the ins and outs of fighting for success on the court?
Jason Mansfield: We just never got a chance to settle into a lineup. We felt like the six seniors and five juniors, we had really good experience, and we played in the non-conference schedule and battled with Purdue and USC and some other teams, but we never got a chance – even in the preseason – to really settle down and figure out a lineup. We had so many injuries. It was disappointing. That's the word that comes to mind. It's not what we expected. I feel badly for the seniors, who had higher expectations.
Fritchen: As you went back and rewatched matches and delved into analytics, what were some of your biggest takeaways?
Mansfield: Very similar to the year before, honestly. We needed to be more balanced offensively. We needed to set our middles more and our opposites more, and we just ended up setting up outside hitters a bunch. We had good outside hitters but it's really difficult to put a lot of pressure on those girls. That was two years in a row of not really having the middle presence that we want. We've been working on that quite a bit. That's the first thing that comes to mind, because that's how you score the most points, is trying to get kills. That's what we're working on.
Fritchen: You return associate head coach Steve Astor, bring in assistant coach Kelly O'Connor and Andrew Mabry serves as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
What do you admire about Steve Astor and how he's been able to positively affect the program?
Mansfield: It's endless. What he does for us from a recruiting standpoint, from scouting, in the gym teaching, he's elite at all those areas, and it's a blessing to have him and to keep him. He's a big part of what we're trying to do. His knowledge of the game, his ability to see things clearly and convey that to the girls, whether it's a skill, a scouting report, he's just elite at a bunch of things, and a big reason we have the 10 kids we have coming in the next two years. This is the first big freshman class we have coming in this year – six kids – and he's a big part of that.
Fritchen: What do you admire about Kelly O'Connor and what does she bring to the table as an assistant coach?
Mansfield: When I was looking for assistants, my guiding principle is I wanted teachers, and really good coaches who knew how to teach the game and loved learning and loved connecting with athletes. She's all of those things. She can teach any skill, any position with confidence, and just her ability to connect with the girls right away in the gym and outside the gym has been awesome. That's certainly something I want all our coaches to be able to do. The most important thing is to teach and to develop and to connect with them on a personal level. She's really elite at those things, and she wore a lot of hats as associate head coach at Nebraska-Omaha, and that allows her to do a lot of things.
Fritchen: What do you admire about Andrew Mabry and what makes him a good assistant coach and recruiting coordinator?
Mansfield: He's been a head coach for boys and girls in high school and in club and is used to wearing different hats as far as teaching, developing and running programs. He's elite at coaching setters, and he's taken over recruiting, so that's a new thing for him, and he's doing a great job with it organizationally, and having those personal connections with coaches and club coaches. The whole staff, there's a maturity and experience that we all have coaching for a long time and loving what we do and developing our own style but having the same principle as far as why we love what we do. He's a big part of what we're doing moving forward. He's taking over the offensive stuff and we're already a lot better in that space.
Fritchen: I understand K-State played Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri in the spring season. What stood out to you in each of those contests?
Mansfield: I wanted to play the most elite programs we could play. To play three SEC teams was awesome. Each had different styles. We played four sets to 25 and one set to 15 against all of them. We beat Oklahoma 17-15 in the fifth, beat Arkansas all four sets to 25 and then lost 17-15, and then beat Missouri 15-11 in the fifth. There was a lot of good volleyball against a certain opponent that does things in a unique way, and you have to figure it out a little bit as the matches go on. Those were physical teams, and we had to figure out how to play against them and what they were good at and how to slow them down. I loved it. It's been the best spring of all three so far. We're more organized, we have five kids that are going to be seniors, and our five juniors have been incredible, and then Symone Sims has a ton of experience from her sophomore year. The six of them led what we were doing in the gym and a big reason why we won those matches in the spring.
Fritchen: Who are some players who've most stood out to you so far?
Mansfield: We start with our seniors — Ava LeGrand, Jordyn Williams, Brenna Schmidt, Shaylee Myers and Aniya Clinton. They've all played a lot of college volleyball the last couple years, and they all had to take their game to the next level in order for us to be the team we need to be, and they've all done that, and Symone Sims as well. So, the six of them have played a lot of volleyball. It's really cool to see their skills go up and their leadership go up. That's a big thing. But, man, Ava is doing a great job with sets, and Aniya and Shaylee are really, really dynamic on the outside. Ava has done good work there. Symone has really taken her game to the next level. She's always been an elite defender, but she's really doing a great job serve/receive and system setting. Brenna and Jordyn are work horses. They work really hard and get up really quick, and they're trying to close the block. They're like the offensive linemen in football in that they do a lot of things nobody sees because they have to really work hard in the trenches. What a blessing to have these six girls that have all played quite a bit, and they're very cohesive together. That's a big reason we've been successful in the spring. The six of them play really well together.
Fritchen: Who are some players K-State fans might not know about who are ready to emerge?
Mansfield: It probably starts with Reagan Fox. The last two years she's really been working hard to try and figure out a way to get onto the court. She's really stepped up her game and she's playing right side a lot for us now. She's just somebody that we're going to need. She's the Kansas/Missouri girl, and she's been waiting a couple years to play. She redshirted two years ago and played a little bit last year. There's Emerson Van Lannen, who redshirted last year, and she's stepping into more of a role as a setter and as a defender. Then Lauren Schneider has really taken her game to the next level. She's really dynamic, a smaller attacker, who's doing a good job out there. Then we have six freshmen coming in. I watched five of them play this week in their last tournament. The gym is going to be a lot better with those girls getting in here.
Fritchen: At this early stage, what kind of potential does this team possess for next season?
Mansfield: I see a lot of potential. I'm a pretty optimistic person, so all three years that I've been here, I've believed that we can be great. I think after we played these three spring matches, it just confirms that we can play with anyone, and we can be successful if people are improving and we're playing together. That's the big thing, is can we play together, and can we feed off each other's energy, and inspire each other to be great. There's enough talent here to be great. Whether that's make the tournament, whether that's make a deep run in the tournament, that's always the goal. The goal is to make deep runs in the tournament. That expectation will be the same. We want to be more process oriented, but the idea of this program being successful every year regardless of who we have is the goal. We want to keep moving upward. I have high expectations for this group. We have good experience, we have good freshmen coming in, and we have good balance and motivation to be great. I'm excited for the fall.
Fritchen: What's next as we head into May? What do the next few months look like for you, the volleyball players and the program?
Mansfield: After we play the Alumni Match on Saturday, we can't coach them until August 8th. What they do in the summer is on them. It's different in basketball and football and some other sports, but for us, we have to trust and believe that they're going to work out and try to find ways to play volleyball. Most of them will come back in July for camp, and they can train and do open gyms. We have this wonderful facility that they can play in if they want. That's pretty much what it looks like. We have to be hands off. Those are the rules. Just a lot of trust that there's good culture, and that culture is going to be them hopefully playing together and working hard over the summer.
Fritchen: What's the feeling like walking into the Morgan Family Arena each day? Do you sometimes still have to pinch yourself over the facility?
Mansfield: I mean, it's home now. For the first year, I was just in awe, like, 'This is where I get to go to work.' How blessed I am. Now it just feels like home. We've played some matches in here that have kind of shaped what this program is in this arena and what it can be. We've had some glimpses. It's just such a blessing every time we come in here and every time I walk through those doors, turn and look, and realize this is where we get to train and play. It makes me excited for the fall to come to play matches in here. It just feels like home now.
Players Mentioned
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/ Volleyball
OH/OPP
/ Volleyball
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/ Volleyball
OH/OPP
/ Volleyball
MB
/ Volleyball
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/ Volleyball
L/DS
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
MB
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