By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The quiet sounds of a typical Waco fall evening were traded out for the deafening roars of a packed-out Ferrell Center Friday night as Baylor took on West Virginia.
Coming off a two-game skid with blowout losses at Iowa State and Colorado, and losing five of their last eight games, the Bears (13-8, 8-5 Big 12) came out looking to find some spark among a rowdy weekend crowd. They found it Friday, sweeping the Mountaineers (14-9, 2-9 Big 12) to get back into the win column.
“We had so much time this week with four days to prep for the match,” graduate middle blocker Gabrielle Essix said. “We needed to just grind and get after it to be able to see everything we worked on this week show on the court.”
The Bears immediately began with the aggressive energy they had been missing as Essix rifled in the first point of the match with a kill.
The fear of an extended losing streak haunted the green and gold through the first set. Every time the team gained momentum, repeated self-inflicted mistakes and missed spots on the court led to the Mountaineers’ advantage. A 10-6 Baylor lead quickly turned 17-11 in favor of West Virginia.
Head coach Ryan McGuyre’s squad remembered its previous high level of play, rallying to win the first set 25-23. The Bears took the winning point in the same tone as the first of the match: on the back of an emphatic Essix kill.
“We gave up a run in the first set, but then got a run of our own to respond to it,” McGuyre said.
Essix echoed McGuyre’s sentiments toward the first set.
“We had to get back there and just do all the key things that Coach Mac preaches,” Essix said. “Just all together, we had to work to get out of that set, get on a run and close that one out.”
The West Virginia bench began the second set singing the words to Fergie’s “Glamorous,” yet the Mountaineers’ set was anything but.
The Bears found the footing they had been struggling to discover lately on the back of junior middle blocker Victoria Davis, who followed two straight blocks with a murderous kill that had the Baylor crowd erupting out of its seats.
A dominance that was all so familiar for the green and gold in the first half of the season was back on display in the second set, as the Bears captured a 25-16 victory. Freshman outside hitter Ksenia Rakhmanchik tallied seven kills in the second set alone, teeing the squad up for a potential three-set sweep.
“Every game I start to be more confident,” Rakhmanchik said. “Our team today in general was great in passing, so I was able to benefit off of that.”
Freshman libero Morgan Madison and Rakhmanchik were stellar for the Bears in Friday’s outing. Rakhmanchik, who now ranks fifth all-time for the green in gold in kills by a freshman, led the team in the category once again, earning 15 total kills on the evening.
Madison, who is on pace to break the all-time Baylor freshman digs-per-set record (2.21) at 3.54 this season, served as a vocal leader for her team. Madison could repeatedly be seen on the court encouraging her teammates to fight their way out of the losing streak they entered the night with.
“Morgan’s been spectacular all season, and I think she’s a strong candidate for Big 12 Freshman of the Year,” McGuyre said. “[Rakhmanchik] doesn’t need any more confidence out there. She gets less frustrated when she gets more sets, and we want her to have that voice. She had 41 attempts today, and the next-highest was 19.”
The third set showed a Mountaineer fight that was non-existent in the second set. Like an old racehorse with a little steam left, West Virginia refused to be put down as it maintained back and forth play with the Bears. McGuyre’s team trusted the work it proved throughout the game, pulling away from the Mountaineers to claim the final set 25 – 19.
“This was a good win,” McGuyre said. “We just want to get better each day on the court and in the gym so we’re the best versions that we can be as we get ready to head into the tournament.”
Next up, the Bears will play Utah at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
