By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Editor
A sea of green and gold overalls covered an overflowing student section. That sea rocked the Ferrell Center crowd as it showed why it is one of the most formidable home courts in the nation.
No. 21 Baylor volleyball (9-4, 1-2 Big 12) took care of UCF (8-5, 0-3 Big 12) in front of its second-largest crowd of the season, 25-16, 25-16, 25-27, 25-22.
“The fans were wild, the fans were crazy,” head coach Ryan McGuyre said. “Our fans really rattled them, at least for those first two sets … They were missing a high percentage of serves.”
The Knights came into Waco leading the Big 12 with 1.74 aces per set but were held to one ace and 11 service errors.
The Bears jumped ahead early Friday night. A pair of blocks capped off a 7-2 lead as the crowd generated some energy off the bat.
Sophomore libero Morgan Madison kept the energy rising a couple of rallies later, slamming into a chair behind the baseline to save a point for Baylor. The Knights ended up winning that point on an Abby Schomers’ kill to make it a 14-8 Bears advantage, but Madison set the tone with her hustle.
“Our back row is so aggressive, and they want to get after every single ball,” senior middle blocker Victoria Davis said. “[It’s] so encouraging and brings so much energy seeing her go for it. It makes every single person on this team want to go for it even more with her.”
Baylor kept its distance from UCF for the rest of the set to win 25-16.
The Bears capitalized on a sloppy start from the Knights, who committed seven attack errors to nine kills. The Baylor front line also kept the UCF offense down with three team blocks. The back row’s defensive efforts inspired the front during the first set.
“With that energy from the back row, we want to do the same thing in the front row because we’re playing for each other at all times,” Davis said.
The Bears’ momentum rolled over into the second set. Back-to-back service aces from sophomore outside hitter Ksenia Rakhmanchik lit up Baylor as it forced a UCF timeout, leading 11-6.
The Bears cooled off from the baseline, finishing the night with 6 aces to 11 service errors. They showed improvement from the past weekend where they committed 27 errors to seven aces in their two losses against No. 18 BYU and Utah.
“We spent probably all of Wednesday focused on that,” McGuyre said. “We want to be able to get runs of three from our servers. [We] started it; I didn’t think we maintained it.”
Baylor outpaced the Knights as the second set progressed. It won five of the final six points with a Rakhmanchik kill up the middle to secure its second 25-16 win of the match.
UCF did not go down easily in the third set. The Knights pulled ahead 12-11 on a four-point run for their third lead of the match. The Bears tried to pull ahead but could not surpass UCF to drop the third set.
Baylor’s defense faltered while the offense connected on 20 kills in the set.
“We had six blocks after two sets … and that means there’s pressure on them,” McGuyre said. “No blocks in that third set, one block in the last one … Our play at the net wasn’t as strong.”
Baylor rode to a 17-13 advantage over the Knights behind six Rakhmanchik kills in the fourth. UCF gave the Bears a scare, cutting the deficit to one with a 4-0 run. They held on to win five of the final eight points to secure the four-set victory.
Baylor finishes the weekend against No. 24 Colorado at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center.
