By Grant Morrison | Sports Writer
No. 18 Baylor volleyball returned to form in the final matchup of the Baylor Invitational, sweeping Samford in three sets, 25-13, 25-19, 25-12, Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center. After a difficult week that included being swept by SMU and a less-than-perfect win over LSU, huge offensive performances from junior opposite hitter Allie Sczech and senior outside hitter Elise McGhee propelled the Bears to their seventh win of the season.
It was a bit of a slow start for the Bears (7-2) as they dropped the first three points of the game before getting to work on offense. A quick assist from graduate student setter Jackie Barrett Frazier set up McGhee for the first kill of the day. Back-and-forth volleys set Baylor up with a 10-7 deficit before the Bears scored nine times unanswered, building off of Barrett Frazier’s serves.
“You can tell that Jackie takes it personally when she goes up there and serves. She was serving some dimes,” redshirt junior middle blocker Alicia Andrew said.
The Bears made light work of the rest of the first set, only allowing three more points before freshman opposite hitter Grace Carroll delivered the last kill, closing the frame 25-13.
The second set stayed closer, as the Bulldogs (5-2) found their footing and put pressure on Baylor’s back row, bypassing defenders and delivering kills. The Bears unleashed firepower of their own in response, with Sczech racking up kills with relentless efficiency.
“It’s all about process,” Sczech said. “That’s what the preseason is, and we’re just trying to find our best ball.”
After being benched in the matchup against LSU, Sczech played with a vengeance, leading the team with 10 kills out of 17 attempts. Each attack flew like a missile onto the other side of the court, dominating the struggling Samford defense as the green and gold clinched the second set 25-19.
McGhee joined the fray with nine kills and zero errors. In the third set, she delivered her patented 30-foot serve off the head of a Samford player for her third service ace of the day. With the ace parade, McGhee now has 51 in her career with the green and gold.
The Bears never allowed the Bulldogs to breathe in the final set, dishing out 14 kills and no errors to take it 25-12. The offense ran smoothly, allowing nine different Bears to record kills in the dominant win, with six from Carroll. The Baylor faithful kept the Ferrell Center loud, throwing Samford off their game and forcing their hitting percentage to an abysmal .102 as opposed to the Bears’ .451.
“[Efficiency] has been a big emphasis on our team, on all fronts,” Andrew said. “We saw what we needed to work on… and dialed that in this week.”
After graduate student opposite hitter Jennifer Bolden shut the door with the final kill, the team gathered on the court to celebrate head coach Ryan McGuyre’s 200th win at Baylor.
“What a blessing and joy it is to be at Baylor,” McGuyre said. “Baylor just feels like home…Baylor’s who I want to be associated with… I want to tell the grandkids ‘I got to coach at that university.’”
The Bears’ next match will be against the two-time national champion, No. 6 Texas, at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Ferrell Center.
