By Grant Morrison | Sports Writer
No. 4 seed Baylor volleyball opened the NCAA tournament with a sweep, taking down the Wofford Terriers 25-11, 25-11, 25-18 in the Ferrell Center Thursday night. Junior opposite hitter Allie Sczech led the way, tallying 12 kills on 20 attempts with no errors.
Baylor (23-7) was in control all night, hitting .340 to Wofford’s (23-9) .047. The Bears dominated the serving line as well, totaling 10 aces to the Terriers two.
Wofford started frazzled by the home crowd, opening the match with a service error and following it with two attack errors. It was the start of a messy campaign for the Terriers, who ended the day with almost an entire set’s worth of errors at 23.
The Bears, on the other hand, stayed clean, jumping out to a 9-2 lead. Senior outside hitter Elise McGhee stole an ace tipped off the top of the net, her first of a career-high tying six on the night. Senior libero Lauren Briseño and redshirt junior middle blocker Alicia Andrew joined the fun with aces of their own, and a pinpoint kill to the back corner from Sczech gave the Bears a 20-10 lead.
A 5-1 run by Baylor closed out an error-free first set, capped off by yet another ace from sophomore defensive specialist Tehani Ulufatu.
“I like that we kept the errors down, especially in the first set… [Sczech] hitting .600 is hard to do,” head coach Ryan McGuyre said.
Sophomore outside hitter Kendal Murphy was similarly efficient, racking up seven kills and no errors.
Early in the second set, McGhee finally gave up Baylor’s first attack error, opening the doors for Wofford to take their first and only lead of the day, 5-2. The spell was broken by a Wofford attack error, followed by another Baylor ace, this time from graduate student setter Jackie Barrett Frazier.
Sczech caught fire, tallying kill after kill as the Bears went on an 8-1, then 9-1 run as they raced to a dominant finish. The Terriers struggled to find their footing, hitting a disastrous -.032 to the Bears’ .344
With two blocks and two kills, Sczech was responsible for the final four points as Baylor matched its first set score, 25-11.
“It was like a rhythm and a flow, I felit like we were kind of all locked in…how can we just be good after good, every single point?” Sczech said.
Baylor started the third with a 4-0 run before a blocking error gave Wofford some confidence, spurring them to score four straight. Andrew broke their momentum with a kill, then another to extend the lead. Three aces from McGhee punctuated a 5-0 scoring run.
After the Bears pushed out to a comfortable lead, McGuyre put in a number of bench players to finish off the set. The substitutions allowed the Terriers to artificially narrow the score, working their way to 18 points before freshman opposite hitter Grace Carroll finished them off, earning her second kill and sending the Bears to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Baylor will face the No. 5-seeded Dayton Fliers (30-2) in the two programs’ first game since 2015 (3-2 Bears) on Friday. Dayton’s head coach, Tim Horsmon, hired McGuyre as an assistant at Maryland in 2011, which McGuyre credits for his eventual success at Baylor.
The Fliers are coming off a dominant season and a convincing sweep of South Carolina (16-11), but the Bears relish the opportunity to face talent.
“Pressure is a privilege,” McGhee said. “Being able to have the opportunity to defend our home court is super exciting.”
The face-off begins at 7 p.m. Friday in the Ferrell Center and will stream on ESPN+.
