RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.8 (Volleyball)

Historic night for @AiniseHavili, breaking Andi Rozum’s record for career assists at KU (4,801 and counting…)#KUvball #RockChalk pic.twitter.com/0DJseeGDNq

— Kansas Volleyball (@KUVolleyball) October 12, 2017

Holly Rowe & Addie Barry — back-row ?? sisters! #KUvball #BackRowAddie @addie_ann

A post shared by Kansas Volleyball (@kuvolleyball) on Oct 9, 2017 at 5:14pm PDT

It’s official: Ainise Havili will go down in the record books as the most successful setter in Kansas volleyball history.
 
Last week, the Fort Worth, Texas, native recorded 50 assists against No. 5 Texas to pass Andi Rozum (2002-05) for first place on KU’s career assists list. With 10 matches remaining in the regular season, Havili has 4,801 career assists — more than enough time to trailblaze further into uncharted territory and reach the elusive 5,000-assist mark.
 
To crack the top-10 of the Big 12’s career assists list, Havili needs 4,899 assists. She would become the only player on the Big 12’s list who has played her entire career in the 25-point set scoring era, which began in 2008. From 2001 to 2007, sets were played to 30 (win by two), rather than the current format of 25.
 
Despite the extra five points per set available to Havili’s peers in the record books, she has produced at an alarming 11.43 assists per set and stayed healthy throughout her career to make up the difference.
 
Since her first match of her freshman season in 2014, Havili has started all of KU’s 113 matches. Her career mark of 11.43 assists per set ranks third among active NCAA Division I players, only trailing Colorado State’s Katie Oleksak (11.48) and Minnesota’s Samantha Seliger-Swenson (11.82).
 
As the setter, Havili controls the pace and efficiency of KU’s high-octane offense and makes split-second decisions as to which hitter to set in different situations. Those talents have yielded success in the form of KU’s 95-18 record since 2014, advancing to the 2015 Final Four, winning the 2016 Big 12 title and leading the nation in kills per set in 2015. Plus, she has racked up individual accolades, including two Big 12 Setter of the Year awards and three All-American nods.
 
Havili’s career-assist record is just the latest in an All-American career riddled with unprecedented accomplishments as the leader of the Jayhawks since she stepped foot on campus in 2014.
 
Next up, Havili will help guide her teammate, classmate and roommate, Kelsie Payne, to break the next KU career record. Payne, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, is less than 100 kills away from KU’s career kills record entering Wednesday night’s match at No. 24 Baylor.
 
KU CAREER ASSISTS