By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
After sweeping Cincinnati on Friday at the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, No. 21 Baylor volleyball is back at the Ferrell Center to host No. 24 UCF.
The Bears (10-7, 4-3 Big 12) have faced an uphill battle in the opening half of back-to-backs this season, dropping openers against Kansas State and Iowa State before closing one out against Cincinnati. The team’s refrain of “the better team wins night two” translated into first-game success versus the Bearcats.
“I think we went into Cincinnati, and we really took the game plan to heart,” redshirt sophomore middle blocker Allie Andrew said. “It was just a really fun game. I think we’ve always said like, ‘Yeah, better team wins the second night,’ but I was like, ‘Hey, look, better team wins both nights.’”
Head coach Ryan McGuyre pointed to this weekend as an opportunity to develop more consistency.
“Part of being consistent is doing it over and over again,” McGuyre said. “I think if we can do that this weekend, then that breeds more confidence and strength, saying like, ‘OK, now we can still improve.’ What is already strong can get stronger, we can add some more things, versus, ‘Hey, let’s try and … work on new things,’ but we have to go back and make sure these things can maintain.”
Up next for the Bears is a match against the Knights (16-2, 7-0 Big 12), another ranked team in arguably the nation’s deepest volleyball conference.
“They’re [an] aggressive serving team,” McGuyre said. “I think we’ll be tested again. And K-State I thought served tough, but that phase of the game, we did pretty good. So we’ll have to continue that. … And they have five hitters who can all hit and score. So, there’s no ghosts on their team to where you can be like, ‘Hey, let’s really key on this player or that player.’”
UCF has only played one ranked opponent to Baylor’s six. Meanwhile, the Bears are looking to keep a three-game conference winning streak alive after dropping three of their first four. The series will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Ferrell Center and wrap up with a contest at noon on Sunday.
