No. 6 VB Hosts North Texas and Pepperdine in Spring Opening Weekend

	BAYLOR BEARS (13-3, 13-3 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Ryan McGuyre (Biola, 1998) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)
	NORTH TEXAS MEAN GREEN (4-5, 1-3 C-USA) Location: Denton, Texas Conference: Conference USA Head Coach: Andrew Palileo (Crown (MN), 1991) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)
	PEPPERDINE WAVES (7-1, 7-1 WCC) Location: Malibu, Calif. Conference: West Coast Conference Head Coach: Scott Wong (Pepperdine, 2001) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)

BAYLOR (13-3) vs. NORTH TEXAS (4-5)
Friday, Feb. 26, 2021 • 6 p.m. CT
Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center
Live Stats: baylorstats.com
WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+

BAYLOR (13-3) vs. PEPPERDINE (7-1)
Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021 • 6 p.m. CT
Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center
Live Stats: baylorstats.com
WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Baylor Social Media:

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            With a 13-3 record and runner-up finish in the Big 12, Baylor volleyball did enough in the fall that the Bears could have "done nothing (this spring) and been guaranteed a decent seed going in" for the NCAA tournament, coach Ryan McGuyre said.
            But, since the tournament was moved from December to April 13-24, McGuyre wanted "to play some good teams to be sharp."
            That starts this weekend, with Baylor hosting North Texas (4-5) at 6 p.m. Friday and Pepperdine (7-1) at 6 p.m. Sunday to kick off an 11-match spring schedule. The Bears have been off for three months since finishing the fall schedule with a pair of wins over then-No. 10 Kansas State.
            "Three months is a long time, for sure," McGuyre said. "It's really even longer than the summer break. We have May, June and July and then we're doing double days in August. This time, you have three months and we didn't get to do double days, it was a delayed start, we had the winter (storm). We're going to overcome. We know nothing's perfect, and we're just thankful we're playing."
            Baylor has home-and-home series with No. 2 Texas, North Texas and Texas State (25-3), which has already qualified for the NCAA tournament as Sun Belt Conference champions, plus back-to-back home matchups against Oklahoma and a road trip to play Houston and Rice next month.
            "This definitely helps us for seeding purposes," McGuyre said. "The (selection) committee wants us to play as much non-conference as possible. I think we'll probably be the No. 1 team when it comes to non-conference opponents.
"Normally, the non-conference helps, and then you play the conference to smooth things out. And you don't mind stubbing your toe in non-conference, because you're learning from it and then you want to shore those things up and grow and move on. So, this is a little unique that we can't afford to stub our toe too much if we're thinking about seeding."
            After playing just once in the fall, North Texas has already got eight matches under its belt in the spring and is coming off a 3-0 sweep of Texas State when the Eagles "finally had their whole team healthy," McGuyre said.
            "They were playing with liberos at middle and were down to six or seven plays for a few of their matches," he said. "I hope we were paying attention, because Texas State . . . took a dinger in three, lost to North Texas, in their first match with everyone being healthy. They play good defense and try to be low-error with everything they're doing."
            Pepperdine figures to be an even tougher test on Sunday. The Waves are receiving votes in the AVCA poll and are coming off a split with No. 12 BYU, sweeping the first one, 3-0, before dropping a five-setter.
            "Pepperdine's got live arms all the way around, and they're a really good ball-control team this year," McGuyre said. "I expect them to come in and serve aggressively, and our block needs to show up both nights, but definitely against Pepperdine."
            On top of a stacked fall lineup that includes 2019 National Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley at outside hitter, All-American setter Hannah Sedwick and North Carolina transfer Lauren Harrison, the Bears added middle blocker Preslie Anderson, a grad transfer from Cal who earned Pac-12 honors in 2019 when she hit .402 with 211 kills and 14 aces.
            "She's just an all-around joy to be around," redshirt freshman DS Campbell Bowden said of Anderson, who enrolled at Baylor in January. "She always has a smile on her face, she's always talking on the court. We're just thankful to have her and just the person she is and what she's added to the team. You would never know she just got here. You would think she's been here for her whole career."
            McGuyre said Yossiana Pressley was "barely healthy by the end" of the fall, even though she had a pair of 30-kill matches against Texas, but "she started off looking really, really good."
            "While I don't want her to have to have 40 kills every night," McGuyre said, "she's capable of having 50 the way she's looking. Maintaining it will be the key."
            Both matches this weekend will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor All-American Katie Staiger Smith calling the action.

STORYLINES
RETURN OF THE BEARS

After over three months away from the fall season, No. 6 Baylor makes its return to continue the 2020-21 campaign against North Texas and Pepperdine this weekend at the Ferrell Center.
The Bears placed 2nd in the Big 12 after going 13-3 in the fall.
Most recently, Baylor took both matches from No. 10 K-State in Waco on Nov. 20 and 21.
BU will compete in an additional 11 matches this spring, including four dates against Big 12 opponents that will count as non-conference contests.

AGAINST THE MEAN GREEN

BU enters Friday's matchup with UNT leading the all-time series 20-8.
In the McGuyre era, the Bears are 3-0 against North Texas.
In their last meeting, Baylor took a 3-1 victory in Waco.
BU has won 20 of the last 21 meetings with UNT.

AGAINST THE WAVES

For the first time in program history, Pepperdine comes to Waco on Sunday for a date with the Bears.
Baylor and Pepperdine have not previously met in women's volleyball.
The Waves currently hold a 7-1 record, including a 3-0 win over No. 12 BYU on Tuesday.

MAKING HISTORY

Senior OH Yossiana Pressley currently sits in second place on Baylor's all-time career kills leaderboard. She broke the BU record for kills in the rally-scoring era and sits just 535 kills shy of Elisha Polk for the all-time school record.
Pressley was most recently named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 10 after the series at No. 1 Texas, garnering her 18th-career weekly conference award, the most in Big 12 history.
In the matches at UT, the reigning national player of the year put down 61 kills on a .299 efficiency, averaging 6.10 kills per set and accounting for 65 total points. She also added four solo blocks and 14 digs.
Her 32 kills in Nov. 5's match were the most by a BU player since her own career-high 39 at Iowa State on Sept. 22, 2018, also a program record.
In the series opener against the Longhorns, Pressley opened the match without an error through two sets, tallying 18 kills on her first 30 swings.
Baylor has garnered seven Big 12 weekly awards in the 2020-21 season, the most in the league.

-BaylorBears.com-

No. 6 VB Hosts North Texas and Pepperdine in Spring Opening Weekend

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Players Mentioned

Preslie Anderson

Campbell Bowden

Lauren Harrison

Yossiana Pressley

Hannah Sedwick

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No. 6 VB Hosts North Texas and Pepperdine in Spring Opening Weekend

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Preslie Anderson

Campbell Bowden

Lauren Harrison

Yossiana Pressley

Hannah Sedwick

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