By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
No. 12 Baylor (8-4, 3-1) is looking forward to a single-match week after a tough schedule that was mostly spent on the road to start the season. Baylor will play the University of North Texas at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the North Texas Volleyball Center in Denton, followed by a week-long break. The Bears played eight of their first 12 matches as the visitor and have gone to five sets multiple times. Head coach Ryan McGuyre said the time to rest will be great for the entire squad.
“Looking forward to the match tomorrow,” McGuyre said. “Gives us a chance to sharpen some things and maybe work on some stuff, some wrinkles that we need to still be adding. Then, over the weekend, a chance to rest up a little bit and make sure everyone’s fresh and healthy. Like to see our hitters jumping back with fresher legs.”
McGuyre has previously said the team needs to work on more efficient serving and cutting down their serving errors. McGuyre said there are now even more areas to improve in, as he would like to see more aggressiveness throughout the match.
“[I’d] like to see our blocking get back to where it was for the first part of the season,” McGuyre said. “I want to be able to transition better in finding our middles. We really need to be a more aggressive team, all the time. When we’re aggressive, you know you get those 25-15 or 13 wins. When we’re a little passive we let the teams hit back at us. Good things happen when we hit hard, so we need to be hitting harder more often. Or at least be able to deviate and locate our shots a lot better.”
Junior outside hitter Lauren Harrison also said the week off will be a good opportunity for the team to rest their bodies and get ready to continue conference play. Harrison said the upset loss to Texas Tech University, as well as the response to it, taught Baylor a good lesson that aligns with McGuyre’s point of emphasis on not taking their foot off the gas.
“We have to stay consistent all throughout the game,” Harrison said. “Keep our foot on the pedal; we can’t just let up just because we have a 2-0 lead. So just stay consistent and stay aggressive throughout the whole match.”
Players have been moved around throughout the season, but Harrison said that everyone knows their role by now and the team is coming together. McGuyre said before the season that the team has championship aspirations. As they take this weekend to rest up, they look to be 100% to finish conference play and will try to make another push to obtain their goals.
After their match with North Texas and the bye week, the Bears will pick back up with conference play on Oct. 14 against the University of Kansas in the Ferrell Center.
