While team bonding and togetherness is a key part of every offseason, the Kansas volleyball team recently got an assist from Mother Nature to make it happen.
“You want to talk about a team bonding experience? Try living through a hurricane together,” KU junior Reese Ptacek told R1S1 Sports this week. “One minute, I was sitting on the sun chair and next thing I knew, I look up and I can’t see 5 feet in front of me.”
From left to right, before, during & after the heavy storm that hammered Lake of the Ozarks on July 4. [R1S1 Sports photos]
Like tens of thousands of other vacationers, Ptacek and eight other Jayhawks recently found themselves in the middle of a powerful storm at the Lake of the Ozarks over Fourth of July weekend.
There was a little more time between sun-bathing one moment and scurrying the next for the girls to get to safety, but Ptacek said it was a wild experience for all of them.
“As soon as the storm hit, I heard people screaming, ‘Grab our phones,’” she recalled. “My hat blew away, my sunglasses fell in the water. I lost them. But we didn’t lose any phones, we didn’t lose any watches, we didn’t lose any people.”
They did, however, lose power. For the next two days.
Rather than bailing, they decided to stick it out and that’s where the bonding and relationship-building really took off. No fridge. No air conditioning. No television or lights. Just enough power from the generator provided by their AirB&B hosts next door to keep a couple of phones powered up in case of emergencies.
While making calls and texts was possible, the phones had no way to receive data. So the daily routine of scrolling and watching reels or Netflix was replaced by good, old-fashioned conversation and camaraderie.
“As much as it sucked to have no power, it was the best team bonding,” Ptacek said. “You can’t make that up or plan for it.”
All you can do is react. So, they did.
Shortly after the storm passed on July 3rd — it only was really roaring for about 30 minutes — Ptacek said she and her teammates saw people from nearby houses collecting things from the lake that had blown off of their docks when the wind was howling.
“So, we jumped in the water and were grabbing things and bringing them back to people,” she said. “We were just trying to help.”
Later that day, the junior middle blocker from Prescott, Wisconsin became the grillmaster, making sure the girls had breakfast, lunch and dinner the rest of the trip. She called firing up the grill them being “crafty.”
“My teammates were like, ‘We love you,’” Ptacek recalled with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘I feel the love, guys.’”
Others had their roles, too. Do-everything sophomore Logan Bell was responsible for rolling out the lily pad on the water each day and the rest of the team knew what to do from there.
“We would just sit there and talk and talk and talk — about life, about sports, about everything,” Ptacek said. “It was so much fun.”
For KU coach Matt Ulmer, who is in Year 2 with the Jayhawks, this is what it’s all about. Bonding. Team chemistry. Relationships. Connection.
Ulmer sought that big time during his first year in Lawrence after taking over for longtime KU coach Ray Bechard. And, in many ways, he succeeded. Last year’s team, which was a mixture of new players and players Ulmer inherited, finished second in the Big 12 race, hosted a pair of NCAA Tournament matches and reached the Sweet 16 before bowing out.
While that clearly marked a great start to the Ulmer era, he said last week that he views that mostly as a transition year and that it’s 2026 that feels like Year 1.
“I would say this feels normal now,” he told R1S1 Sports. “It’s what I’m used to. Last year, it was kind of like, ‘OK, here’s your roster.’ This feels like a year where you’re putting together a roster that you’re picking. And then we’re able to play more of a style that I’d like to play and can train more how I’d like to train. It feels like it’s ours.”
At the core of it all is the chemistry piece.
And there’s continuity from player to player, regardless of their age or past stops.
“Generally I would say you attract like-minded people,” he pointed out. “Those are the types of people that we normally recruit and then they get along because they go well together. Different backgrounds and whatnot, but just solid humans that value relationships and like to have fun and work hard. I think they all appreciate each other that way.”
Ulmer said personality and fit within the KU culture is an important part of every transfer and freshman the Jayhawks seek to add. And this team’s recent lake trip and the bond he has seen develop throughout the spring and summer has him confident that the pieces fit.
“I love the dynamic of our team,” he said. “I think they get along great and I think they really enjoy each other.”
He didn’t have to be on the trip to the Lake of the Ozarks to know that.
“It’s always better without me,” he joked when talking about these types of team outings. “And we’ll do that again for a team-bonding thing. But this one they just did on their own. For that to happen as quick as it has happened, that feels really good. That’s exciting.”
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