By Matthew Soderberg | Sports Writer, Video by Nate Smith | Broadcast Reporter
No. 1 Baylor volleyball swept (25-16, 25-19, 25-12) Oklahoma in their conference home opener at the Ferrell Center. The win Wednesday night is their 12th straight, a new program record.
The Bears have won 19 straight sets since Sept. 12, another program best, and remains the only undefeated team in the nation. With the new ranking and the consistent success, Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre said the team is happy to have that target on their back.
“We really want to embrace it. We truly hope we get every team’s best play heading into postseason. We want to be battle tested as much as possible, just so we can address each area and hope other teams find the chinks in our armor,” McGuyre said. “Texas has won the conference X amount of years, and it’s still their conference to lose until someone does something about it.”
Baylor’s back-line defense was superb Wednesday, forcing Oklahoma into 22 errors and a low .011 hitting percentage. To put that in perspective, even with Baylor’s defense so far this season, the Bears had previously allowed an average hitting percentage of .152. Junior outside hitter Yossiana Pressley said that the team’s effort has been impeccable on that side of the ball.
“We’re the type of team that’s like, okay, we’re gonna try to make them look stupid. We’re gonna try to dig as many balls as we can,” Pressley said. “Our offense wasn’t doing as well as we should have, and that’s okay because we need to be well-rounded, but once we started digging balls […] that helped a lot.”
Senior outside hitter Gia Milana posted a season-high in kills tonight and senior Tara Wulf was the leader in digs with 11. Milana said when the backline is getting good digs, the offense’s job gets easier.
“You have ‘digs for middles’ is what we call it. When it’s just crazy and then someone gets [the ball] up really high, and we can have just so much freedom,” Milana said. “Hannah Lockin has so much freedom to do what she wants with the ball, and that really opens us up. It just makes it so easy, so bless all the back row people.”
Baylor will remain at home to host Kansas State at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center.
