No. 5 Seed VB Sweeps Washington State to Advance

Friday, December 3

Waco, Texas

7PM

Baylor

22-5,14-2Big 12

Washington State

20-12,13-7Pac-12

Washington St.

Baylor

No. 5 Seed VB Sweeps Washington State to Advance

12/3/2021 10:57:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Bears defeat Cougars in Second Round to move on to the Sweet 16

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Washington State coach Jen Greeny jokes that Baylor volleyball coach Ryan McGuyre is "cheating having (Avery) Skinner. She's already won a national championship."
            Skinner and Yossiana Pressley were too much for the 22^nd-ranked Cougars (20-12) to handle, combining for 33 kills, 11 digs, three blocks and one service ace in Friday's 3-0 sweep (27-25, 25-21, 25-20) in an NCAA Tournament second-round match at the Ferrell Center.
            "I'm just trying not to mess it up," said McGuyre, whose team improved to 22-5 with its ninth-straight win and sixth-consecutive sweep. "They're both phenomenal athletes. Avery carried so much of the load passing.
            "Her ability to pass to hit is really significant. I think that separates her from other outsides, to be able to gather herself, have great footwork and have that connection with Hannah (Sedwick) to do that. To hit .353 at a 50% kill percentage to get us into the Sweet 16, that's why she's a first-team All-American."
         Back in the region semifinals for the third time in a row and fourth time in program history, the Bears will face the winner of Saturday's match between Stanford and 12^th-seeded Minnesota next weekend. If fourth-seeded Wisconsin gets by Florida Gulf Coast, the Badgers will host the regional in Madison, Wis.
            "It's always special, because a lot of teams don't have this opportunity," said Pressley, who had seven of her 16 kills in the third set and hit .250 for the match. "It just shows how hard we've been working this whole season. Being in the Sweet 16 is awesome. I've very proud of how we've been playing and just this opportunity."
            With Baylor struggling with serve receive, Washington State had five aces in the first set and had three set points to take the early lead. But, Magda Jehlarova had a service error, Pressley and Skinner had kills to stave off the next two set points.
            After the first of three aces by Bri Coleman, Pressley had a big-swing kill from the left side to give the Bears the first set.
            "To be able to come back and win that one," McGuyre said, "there's a healthy trust and a healthy belief. Good composure within this group. We want to keep getting better and make sure we execute still at even a higher level than tonight. But, the chemistry is there."
            In a second set that Baylor never trailed, 6-6 senior Marieke van der Mark had four kills and three blocks. Skinner had a kill and ace on back-to-back points and then ended the second set at 25-21 with a kill on a point that included a diving saving dig by Pressley.
            "We know that they're going to go with Yossi or me or whoever's front row," said Skinner, who had a match-high 17 kills and a .353 hitting percentage to go with five digs, three blocks and an ace. "Hannah being able to set me behind was definitely the game plan, because we knew I would be one-on-one."
            A tight third set featured 13 ties and seven lead changes, but the Bears reeled off three-straight points to close it out on back-to-back kills by Skinner and an attacking error by Jehlarova that sailed wide.
            Freshman Katy Payne led the Cougars with 12 kills and three blocks, but she was the only WSU player with double-digit kills.
            "I thought this game was an outside hitter battle," McGuyre said. "Tonight, we converted enough of their outside swings into points for us, less than what they converted our outside swings into points. I think that's something we can still get better at, but that was a key matchup in this game."
            Averaging 15 assists per set, Sedwick had 45 assists, six digs and a match-high four blocks, while libero Shanel Bramschreiber had double-digit digs for the second-straight day with 15.
            "Shanel's playing like a fifth coach for us out there when it comes to defense and serve receive," McGuyre said. "Not only was she kind of orchestrating the short serves, she sprinting to them and getting to them first, to free these people up to hit. I've been really pleased with how Bramschreiber is communicating and just being a field general for our defense."

WACO, Texas – No. 5 seed Baylor volleyball swept Washington State in the Second Round on Friday night in the Ferrell Center to advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

The Bears (22-5, 14-2) battled with the Cougars (20-12, 13-7) through three sets, defeating WSU 27-25, 25-21, 25-20.

BU extended their winning streak to eight, their streak of sweeps to six, and have won 20 sets in a row. Baylor has now reached the Regionals for the third-straight year.

Avery Skinner and Yossiana Pressley were once again the shining stars for BU, both with double-digit kills. Skinner led the team by one kill more than Pressley, recording 17 on the night with a .353 hitting percentage.

Bri Coleman was a serving machine for the Bears, with three aces on 16 attempts for a serving percentage of 1.0000. Hannah Sedwick and Skinner also produced from the line, with one ace and a serve percentage in the .900s for the both of them.

HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE
The Bears and Cougars played a balanced first set, catching each other all throughout. Wazzu started out hot but the ice cold kills of Yossiana Pressley cooled them down. Tied up at 5-5, Pressley had a kill to push BU on top. Baylor led from their ninth point on until the Cougars tied it up again at 16-16 with an ace, one of five in the set. Attack errors on both sides tied it at 17. Skinner had a kill, then WSU answered. Back-to-back Cougar attack errors had Washington State calling for a timeout at 20-18. At 23-22 WSU, the Bears called timeout. At set point, Lauren Briseño knew the serve coming her way was out, and was correct. The Bears then had a kill from Pressley to tie it up at 24-all, where WSU called timeout. Baylor fought off WSU, and a Bri Coleman ace made it 26-25 for the Bears. Pressley delivered the final blow to cap off the first set at 27-25.

SET TWO
The second set started off with three-straight serves from Coleman, attack errors from WSU giving Baylor the first two points. Skinner scored early to deliver BU's first kill at 3-2. Sedwick delivered an ace at 5-2. Washington State tried to challenge where the ball landed, but was unsuccessful. Marieke van der Mark had a kill at 9-7, which was the tip of the iceberg from what she would continue to do for the rest of the match. She then offset the tie to have Baylor lead 10-9, then 12-11, then 15-12. Skinner delivered a kill at 17-15, then followed it up with an ace. Just ahead of the Cougars, the Bears pushed on. Lauren Harrison had the 20^th point, and Washington State called timeout after she and van der Mark put up a block to make the score 22-18. An attack and service error from WSU had Baylor up 24-20. Skinner finished off the set at 25-21 with a kill.

SET THREE
Washington State had been determined to keep Baylor close in the prior two sets, and continued that battle in the third. Back and forth points started off the set, with Pressley and Skinner both delivering kills for the Bears. Tied at 6-6, Lauren Harrison added a point for BU and the Bears pushed on. The Cougars overtook the Bears at 9-8, but Skinner quickly tied it back up at 9-9. Bri Coleman then went on to deliver back-to-back aces. WSU led at 13-12 and would continue to lead until it was tied at 15-all. Baylor took back the lead en route to taking the set and ultimately the match. Pressley had three kills in a row for the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th points, then Skinner following it up with one of her own. Washington State called timeout, then called timeout again after Harrison, Skinner and Pressley made it 22-18. Skinner scored back-to-back, and an attack error from WSU ended the set at 25-20.

The Bears await their next opponent, with Stanford playing No. 12 seed Minnesota on Saturday at 7 p.m. Also in the Regional would be the winner of Florida Gulf Coast and No. 4 seed Wisconsin, as well as the winner of UCF and No. 13 seed UCLA.

BEAR BITES

Baylor improves to 10-5 under McGuyre in NCAA Tournaments and 13-9 overall.
BU is making its sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and has won 20 or more matches in each of the last six seasons.
The Bears have now hosted a portion of the NCAA Tournament in three different seasons: 2017, 2019, and now 2021.
Baylor has had 19 of its 25 regular-season matches against teams that are now in the tournament, going 14-5.

To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor volleyball, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVball.

-BaylorBears.com-