Preview: No. 1 VB Hosts Oklahoma for Big 12 Home Opener

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            At some point, Ryan McGuyre will have a chance to reflect and remember when his Baylor volleyball team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time.
            "I think it's only special because it's such a special group of women that we get to be with and a part of," said McGuyre, whose top-ranked Bears (11-0, 1-0) will face Oklahoma (10-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
            "It will just bring me back to these beautiful women and the great staff and how hard they've worked. And it will bring back so many joyful experiences of just seeing how they've matured and made me a better coach and made each other better athletes and better people."
            Senior defensive specialist Braya Hunt said the program's first No. 1 ranking in Monday's AVCA poll didn't change her feelings about this team.
            "I already knew we were the No. 1 team in the country," Hunt said. "Not skill-wise, but staff, the team, we have something special here. And it has nothing to do with volleyball. Volleyball is just a nice add. Just feeling poured into by my teammates and my coaches, and ultimately having a place that can cultivate my faith, is the No. 1 team in the nation."
            While the No. 1 ranking certainly provides a target for other teams, McGuyre said his approach has always been that he wants the opposing teams to play at their best, anyway.
            "We don't want them to have injuries, and we hope that when we play Oklahoma they play the best match they've played their entire lives," he said, "and hopefully we will do the same thing."
            Baylor will have a lot of streaks on the line for Wednesday's match against OU. The Bears have won six in a row against the Sooners, can set a program record for best start and most consecutive wins (12) and would break the mark for most consecutive sets won (17) by taking the first two against OU.
            Junior setter Hannah Lockin said the team's goal before the season was to win every set. The Bears have dropped just two sets all year (33-2) – one at Wisconsin and one at home versus Houston – "but we are still super thankful," Lockin said.
            "We just want to keep our mind on day after day, one day at a time, one game at a time, just continuing to achieve or strive to achieve our goal of a national championship," she said.
            McGuyre said the No. 1 ranking is "just a beautiful byproduct of these girls that have bought in and doing things the right way."
            "If we can finish strong and win it all in the end, that would be a great, beautiful miracle in the moment," he said. "When you just look at how Marieke's (van der Mark) has changed, and Nicole's (Thomas) changed and Braya's life has been changed and Tara's (Wulf) life has changed, I could just go through the list. We have had some miracles that will last for all of eternity, and that's pretty exciting, too."
            Through the first week of the conference season, Baylor is one of just four teams that haven't lost a Big 12 match. The Bears, the lone remaining unbeaten team in Division I volleyball, host two of those teams this week with Oklahoma on Wednesday and then Kansas State (6-7, 1-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
            "They just play solid volleyball, and I think as they get more and more physical, they are going to keep getting better and better," McGuyre said of OU. "They've played a lot of teams really tough and got some good wins, and they're going to affect who wins conference this year, for sure."
            Junior outside hitter Yossiana Pressley, the national leader with 5.97 kills per set, was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season and earned her program-leading 13^th week honor.
            The Cypress, Texas native led the Big 12 with 5.67 kills per set while putting away 17 kills in the team's conference opener at Kansas last Saturday. She had a .483 attack efficiency with only three errors on 29 attempts against the Jayhawks.
            Wednesday's match will be broadcast by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor All-American Katie Staiger calling the action.

WACO, Texas – The top-ranked Baylor volleyball team (11-0, 1-0 Big 12) will continue Big 12 play with a home match against Oklahoma (10-3, 2-0 Big 12) Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Ferrell Center.

The match will also be broadcasted on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with John Morris and Katie Staiger on the call.

Fans can follow along for match coverage with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVBall.

BEARS OPEN BIG 12 HOME SLATE AGAINST THE SOONERS
• Baylor volleyball will open the Big 12 home portion of its 2019 schedule against the Sooners.
• The Bears are the only undefeated team left in D1 college volleyball after No. 21 California (11-1) dropped its first match to then-No. 1 Stanford last Thursday night in Berkley.
• BU went undefeated through non-conference play for the first time since 2009 and only the third time in program history. The 2001 season was the first time the Bears went unblemished in non-conference action with an 8-0 record, and the 2009 squad went a program-best 11-0.
• BU looks for its series-best seventh consecutive win over the Sooners Wednesday night.
• Baylor is riding an 11-match winning streak, including six straight at home dating back to 2018.
• BU improved to 3-2 in conference openers under McGuyre with last Saturday's 3-0 win at Kansas.
• Last season, BU dropped a four-set decision to Texas Tech in its Big 12 home opener.
• BU is riding a 16-set winning streak coming into Wednesday. Baylor has won five straight matches in three sets and won the fourth set against Houston dating back to Sept. 12.
• If Baylor wins set one, it would tie its school record with 17 consecutive sets won (2017).
• If Baylor wins set one and two, it would be a new school record with 18 consecutive sets won.

A WIN WOULD…
• A Baylor win would give the Bears a school-record 12 consecutive wins and a program-best 12-0 mark to open a season.
• BU's 2009 squad holds the program record at 11-0 and finished the season with a 24-10 record and a spot in the program's only NCAA Sweet 16.
• A win would give BU four straight wins over OU at home for the first time since the 1998-2001 seasons.

BEARS ARE NO. 1
• Baylor volleyball was tabbed the top-ranked team in the AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history, released Monday afternoon.
• The No. 1 ranking tops the previous all-time program record set last week at No. 2. BU's 54 first-place votes are also a program record, surpassing last week's 27 votes.
• Volleyball is the ninth Baylor program to earn a No. 1 ranking and the third BU team in 2019 (women's basketball, acrobatics & tumbling).
• Baylor is the third Big 12 program to garner the No. 1 AVCA ranking, joining Texas and former member Nebraska. BU is the first conference team since 2017 to hold the top spot in the poll.
• BU is the last remaining unbeaten team in DI college volleyball with an 11-0 record, including a 5-0 mark at home.
• Prior to last season's program-best No. 12 ranking, BU was ranked for 10 straight weeks and peaked at No. 17 in 2009, which stood as the program-high ranking for eight years in the 37-year history of the AVCA poll.
• Since 2017, the Bears entered the top-25 for the first time since 2009, became a top-15 team for the first time ever and recently became a top-five squad three weeks ago.
• The Bears are ranked for the 43rd time in program history and have received votes in the poll for 32 straight weeks dating back to the 2017 season.

LAST TIME VS. OKLAHOMA (Nov. 3, 2018)
• Baylor volleyball used its offensive efficiency to close out Oklahoma in four sets at McCasland Field House in Norman, 25-20, 34-36, 27-25, 25-21.
• The Bears matched a series-best sixth consecutive victory over the Sooners while recording 11 double-digit performances on the road.
• Shelly Fanning fired off a career-high 24 kills on 46 attempts to lead the Bears. Three other Bears were in double digits with Yossiana Pressley (18), Gia Milana (13) and Aniah Philo (13).
• Hannah Fluegel recorded her first career double-double with a team-high 34 assists and a career-high 14 digs to help the Bears record their third consecutive conference win.

EVERY SET MATTERS
• The top-ranked Bears are 11-0 on the season, but the most impressive stat is the fact that the team has won 33 sets and only dropped two in the process.
• The Bears have swept nine teams in 2019, including four ranked squads in Marquette, Hawai'i, Missouri and Creighton.
• Out of 33 sets won, only six of those have been decided by two points.
• Three sets have been decided in extra points with BU winning them all (Wisconsin, Marquette, Missouri).
• The Bears dropped set one at No. 4 Wisconsin, 25-21, and went 12-of-37 with eight errors to hit .108 against the Badgers. Then, the Bears came right back and took set two, 25-22, behind a .406 hitting efficiency.
• BU dropped set three against Houston in the team's home opener, 25-23. BU went 13-of-41 with five errors to hit .195 against the Cougars. BU jumped right back and hit .394 to close it out in four sets.

Preview: No. 1 VB Hosts Oklahoma for Big 12 Home Opener

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Players Mentioned

Hannah Fluegel

Braya Hunt

Gia Milana

Aniah Philo

Yossiana Pressley

Hannah Sedwick

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