2015 Baylor Volleyball Season Recap

Dec. 3, 2015

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Ryan McGuyre wanted, maybe even expected, to still be playing in December.

But, Baylor's first-year volleyball head coach is not about to beat himself up about all the "what if" possibilities for a 17-13 team that flirted with its first NCAA Tournament bid in four years. At No. 42 in the final NCAA RPI rankings, the Bears were actually higher than five teams that received at-large bids.

Coach Ryan McGuyre

"We scheduled awesome," McGuyre said of a non-conference schedule that included wins over Dayton and Northern Iowa, a pair of NCAA Tournament teams, and losses to Colorado State and Cleveland State. "The first RPI, I think we were 30th coming out of it. So really, we did everything right, putting ourselves in the driver's seat come conference time."

Five of the Big 12 Conference's nine teams made the tournament field, including national seeds Texas (3) and Kansas (9). But the five NCAA Tournament teams all finished above .500 in league play, while the Bears were 5-11 after Saturday's season-ending 3-0 sweep of Kansas State.

"Early on, I thought they really embraced the idea of playing fearless," McGuyre said. "It was something for each individual girl that at different times we had to re-visit playing too conservative and not playing as free as they're capable of. There were definitely some matches that were there for the taking, that five of the six were playing free. And it wasn't one single person the whole time."

Injuries took their toll, building up even before the season began. Outside hitter Laura Jones and middle blocker Sam Hill suffered career-ending injuries last season, then 6-1 senior outside hitter Thea Munch-Soegaard discovered a chipped bone in the same foot that required surgery two years ago.

"Losing Thea was a devastating blow, because she was really one of two six-rotation players," McGuyre said. "We had a team of 16 players, and her and Andie were the only six-rotation players that I thought were ready. Her passing would have helped our first-ball side out; her attacking would have kept us even more balanced."

Freshman Amanda Lesikar took up part of that slack, averaging 1.56 kills, 0.6 digs and 0.3 blocks in helping the Bears get off to a 13-3 start. But she suffered a torn ACL in the first set of a 3-1 loss at Oklahoma on Oct. 3, ending her season.

"She still wasn't a terminator," McGuyre said of Lesikar. "But when we had the bad digs, the bad passes, or just great digs that were hard-driven balls, we could throw them out to her and she would do some great things with it. When we lost her, we had to move Andie (Malloy) to the outside hitter position. And that's not her best position."

Andie Malloy

Instead of starting to hit their stride, the Bears were "starting from scratch for certain positions," McGuyre said.

"You spend all of preseason preparing your offense, and we did that in August and September," he said. "That's two months of work, and really all of the spring. And then you're making those adjustments in October and November when you're playing teams the second time through. And they're already two months better at what they're doing."

One of four seniors, Malloy became just the fifth player in program history to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors. The Iowa State transfer led the Bears in kills (308), kills per set (3.05) and service aces (33) for the second straight year and also finished with 28 career double-doubles.

"With Andie, you lose a little bit of everything," McGuyre said. "And we need to get a little bit better at everything -- so her passing, her defense, her blocking, her attacking, her serving -- even though we were in good position. The serving gets replaced by everybody just becoming better servers. I think the defense gets replaced with girls being more comfortable. We finished really strong playing defense and understanding positioning a little bit. The offense would only get replaced with everyone being a little more offensive, carrying some load, and then our new players coming in being able to contribute to that."

Another bright spot was 6-2 freshman Shelly Fanning, who was named second-team All-Big 12 and a unanimous pick on the league's All-Freshman team. Starting every match and playing in all but two sets, Fanning was third on the team in kills and fifth in blocks while hitting .244, the best among Baylor players with 400-plus total attacks.

"Shelly needs to finish strong, and she knows it. She had some foot issues she was wrestling through," McGuyre said. "A lot of (our success next season) will be on Shelly's shoulders and how well she improves in the back row. She needs to become that six-rotation player. She has the mentality for it, so I'm not worried about that."

Adrien Richburg

McGuyre expects a similar jump from Lesikar and fellow freshman Jordan Vail.

"I love coaching them every year," he said. "But to me, the sophomore year is always the most exciting year I have for the athletes, because the light bulb is normally turned on and they have those wow moments where they're like, `Oh man, I'm not a freshman. I'm playing at a high level and doing things I never thought I could.'

"They've had a full season under their belt, they understand the grind, and they really know what to expect. The freshman year, they don't know what to expect. Their eyes are wide open, they go hard, and they make mistakes doing things they don't know they didn't know. And now, they're much more prepared."

The Bears, who also lose setter Amy Rosenbaum, middle blocker Adrien Richburg and libero Mackenzie Mayo, will also get a bump from a freshman class that includes 6-2 middle blocker Daria Richards from Okemos, Mich., and 6-1 middle blocker Nicole Thomas from Midlothian, Va.

"There will be some dynamics playing some more younger girls that I wish I wasn't playing this early," McGuyre said.

More than ever, McGuyre expects to make the NCAA Tournament and play into December next year.

"It's an expectation because you expect to win every match you play," he said. "The scheduling is just as important as anything, making sure we have the right schedule to give us that opportunity. Our conference is good enough that if you just take care of business in conference, that will push you into the tournament."

2015 Baylor Volleyball Season Recap

Players Mentioned

Sam Hill

Laura Jones

Amanda Lesikar

Andie Malloy

Mackenzie Mayo

Thea Munch-Soegaard

Daria Richards

Adrien Richburg

Amy Rosenbaum

Shelly Stafford

Nicole Thomas

Jordan Vail

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2015 Baylor Volleyball Season Recap

Players Mentioned

Sam Hill

Laura Jones

Amanda Lesikar

Andie Malloy

Mackenzie Mayo

Thea Munch-Soegaard

Daria Richards

Adrien Richburg

Amy Rosenbaum

Shelly Stafford

Nicole Thomas

Jordan Vail

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