By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Days after taking No. 6 Wisconsin down to the wire, No. 18 Baylor volleyball fell to SMU at the Ferrell Center in straight sets Tuesday, 25-21, 25-15, 25-16.
The loss drops the Bears to 5-2 on the season ahead of this weekend’s Baylor Invitational. They’ll play six more games at the Ferrell Center, including a nationally-televised match against No. 6 Texas, before their first conference road game at No. 25 TCU on Oct. 6.
Senior libero Lauren Briseño opened the game with Michelin star service, serving up two aces and four assists in the opening set alone. Coming off her first career Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week Award, Briseño followed up Saturday’s double-double with 12 more digs, four assists and two service aces.
But the Mustangs (5-2) took advantage of early miscues, jumping out to an 18-13 lead on the back of 11 Baylor errors. They took that first set, 25-21, and buried the next, 25-15. Trailing 14-13 in the second set, SMU turned on the jets, blitzing the Bears to the tune of a 12-1 closing run.
Throughout the second set, hitting woes continued to plague the Bears. They finished the set with just 14 total kills and a 0.000 hitting percentage; their final mark of 0.020 represented their lowest full-game hitting percentage since a shutout loss to Minnesota on Aug. 26, 2023, and the lowest at home in at least eight seasons.
The third set brought more of the same, with Mustang graduate student middle blocker Natalie Foster slamming her seventh kill to give SMU a 9-2 lead. Led by a sterling 0.275 hit percentage, the Mustangs finished with 46 kills to Baylor’s 20 and recorded 52 digs to Baylor’s 29.
The loss drops head coach Ryan McGuyre to 1-5 against his former Baylor assistants: 0-2 against SMU head coach Sam Erger and 1-3 against TCU head coach Jason Williams. McGuyre will get his next opportunity to best his pupils on Oct. 6, when the Bears travel to play TCU in their first Big 12 road game.
