2 days Ago
Baylor versus Texas — this time it (doesn’t) count. Yeah, so what? That’s the attitude the 20th-ranked Baylor volleyball team is taking, anyway. Sure, for the first time in the longtime history of the programs, Baylor will face the No.
8 Longhorns in a nonconference game on Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center. Texas (3-3) has departed for the SEC, of course. But just because the game won’t count in the Big 12 standings doesn’t mean that the Bears (7-2) want to beat their old rivals any less.
“Yeah, honestly, I don’t think that pre-conference or conference really matters,” said BU senior outside hitter Elise McGhee. “At the end of the day, I think we all want to beat them. We all want to win.
Especially knowing that this is our one and only opportunity to play them versus, like, in conference where you might get two tries. I feel like it just makes it more amplified in that way.” Even before the Longhorns exited, Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre talked about wanting to extend the series in a regular basis.
It just makes sense for both programs. “Right now, it’s their title until someone dethrones them,” McGuyre said. “But we want to be a team that’s got some true grit this year and really wants to battle in this atmosphere in these matches.
These are the matches where we grow. No matter what, we get better. Weaknesses are exploited.
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And it just makes sense. RPI; we’re 90 minutes away from each other. I don’t need to fly to Palo Alto (to Stanford) midweek, to get a top-10 program.
We can do that right now and sharpen each other and get after it.” The Longhorns haven’t been gone long enough to become strangers to Baylor. In fact, this match will serve as a reunion of old teammates, as the Bears go up against their former setter Averi Carlson, who transferred to Texas over the offseason.
The former all-Big 12 performer leads UT with 129 assists on the season. Seeing Carlson again will be fun, not spicy, the Bears said. “Honestly, I think it’s just business as usual,” said junior opposite-side hitter Allie Sczech.
“There’s mutual respect, we have a lot of respect for her, and she has a lot of respect for us. We’re all still pretty good friends. I think it’s just going to be treated like a normal match that we have.
We’re going to prepare for it the same way. We’re going to train the same way, we’re going to do the things we do before every match leading up, so I think we’ll be successful.” Toppling that burnt orange tower has never proven easy for Baylor.
Texas has a 91-4 all-time record over the Bears in their 46-year-old series. The Bears can’t just roll out on the floor and think this Longhorn team is vulnerable because of their 3-3 record this season. After all, they have won the last two national championships.
“They’ve had a tough schedule as well,” McGuyre said. “Stanford is good, and you have to remember they also beat Wisconsin earlier in the year as well. They’re very, very capable.
I think both of us would feel that we’ve stubbed our toe against a team or a program. Their five-setter with Miami is one that they’d want to get back. “But they’ve had Stanford, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Miami on it.
It’s early, we’re all trying to play good teams to get ready for conference. Anytime you have a (Madisen) Skinner on the court, you’re going to be really good. At any point, Madi can go off, and just take over a match.
We’ve seen that.” Indeed, Madisen Skinner soars as one of the country’s hardest hitters. She was the MVP of the Final Four last season, and leads the Longhorns with 93 kills on the year.
And she’s not likely to hold back just because she has some family connections to Baylor — her older sister Avery claimed All-American for the Bears in 2021 and won a silver medal with Team USA this summer and her father Brian is a former Baylor basketball legend and 13-year NBA veteran. Baylor has enjoyed its own net-clearing heights this year — a 3-2 win over then-No. 18 Minnesota comes to mind — and endured other moments where it’s crashed to the floor.
The Bears suffered an ignominious sweep at SMU on Sept. 10 that gave the team loads of teachable moments. They’ve bounced back with wins over LSU and Samford since then, and tried to fix the mistakes that plagued them against the Mustangs.
“I think there’s a lot to be learned,” Sczech said. “You stub your toe and when you stub your toe, you look back and you go, ‘OK, how can we grow from that?’ I feel like there’s a lot of ways we can grow. We’ve kind of reflected on it as a team.
We didn’t serve very well, didn’t pass very well, and obviously weren’t very efficient attacking. ..
. Just fine-tuning that stuff and I think we’ll be successful as we continue to go through the season.” Baylor will need to be on top of its game to have a chance against Texas.
But these are the types of matches that the Bears believe they need to prepare them for the rigors of the Big 12 season and especially the NCAA tournament down the road. “It just shows a preview of everything we can do,” Sczech said. “That’s kind of what we said in the locker room, that’s just the little preview of what the season is going to look like down the road.
What a good preview. I’m just really excited about looking it like that and the good things that happen. Now we just have to make those repeatable.
” Baylor Volleyball: Highlights vs. Samford | September 15, 2024 // via BaylorAthletics on YouTube Time: 8 p.m.
Wednesday Site: Ferrell Center TV: ESPN Records: BU 7-2; UT 3-3 Series: UT leads, 91-4 Be the first to know Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
