No. 6 VB Ready For Another Shot at No. 2 Texas

	BAYLOR BEARS (15-3, 13-3 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Ryan McGuyre (Biola, 1998) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)
	TEXAS LONGHORNS (16-0, 14-0 Big 12) Location: Austin, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Jerritt Elliott (Cal State Northridge, 1991) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)

BAYLOR (15-3) at TEXAS (16-0)
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 • 7 p.m. CT
Austin, Texas • Frank Erwin Center
Live Stats: baylorstats.com
WATCH: Longhorn Network

Baylor Social Media:

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Ryan McGuyre has had a lot of firsts in his six years at Baylor, including winning a share of the program's first Big 12 championship, earning the No. 1 overall seed in the 2019 NCAA tournament and making it to the Final Four.
            He can check off another thing on the list when the No. 6 Bears (15-3) face second-ranked Texas (16-0) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. Baylor is 0-44 all-time versus the Longhorns in Austin, dropping a pair of five-setters in the fall.
            "We want to have a ministry and live a legacy, so making history is not the pinnacle of what we're trying to do," said McGuyre, whose team opened the spring schedule with wins over North Texas and Pepperdine, which moved up to No. 25 in this week's AVCA poll.
            "But, we definitely want to make them aware. . . . I want to talk about it, and if it adds pressure or weight, we'll thrive under that pressure. To me, it makes it more special. I think I'd get bored trying to do the same thing over and over and over again. We're always trying to do more and something better."
            If the Big 12 uses the same scheduling format it did during the fall, when teams played back-to-back matches at the same location, this would be the last chance for seniors like Yossiana Pressley and Hannah Sedwick to win in Austin. Baylor would host the Longhorns twice in the 2021 fall season.
            "Every game is important to us, so this is just another game to us," Sedwick said, "but we know this game carries a lot of opportunity for us. . . . It's definitely on our minds. We would love to beat Texas at Texas. They're such a good team, so fun to play, just great competition. We love to compete, so it's just another opportunity to do that at a high level."
            Easily Baylor's best chances to end the Austin losing streak, Baylor won the first two sets before losing 15-9 in the fifth in the opening match in the fall; and then came back from an 0-2 deficit the second day only to get the same final result. Pressley earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors with a combined 61 kills in the two matches against the Longhorns.
            "I'm excited, honestly," said Pressley, who is second in the Big 12 with 4.63 kills per set, just a fraction behind Texas' Logan Eggleston (4.64). "It's just amazing to go there and play and have that caliber of a team challenge us in new ways. Exciting to see what we learned from this past weekend and from the past two meetings there that stung."
            After a 3-0 sweep of North Texas in the Bears' first-ever spring match, they were pushed to the brink by Pepperdine (7-2), 25-22, 19-25, 25-16, 23-25, Sunday at the Ferrell Center. Pressley had a double-double with 17 kills and 14 digs, while Cal transfer Preslie Anderson recorded nine blocks to earn Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors.
            "She's just an amazing teammate, and I'm so glad we have this spring season to play with her and just be on the court with her amazing energy," Sedwick said of Anderson. "She is an amazing athlete, amazing person, amazing friend, just everything. She brings so much joy to this team."
            The reigning National Player of the Year, Pressley has had some of her biggest matches against Texas, "but to go deep in the tournament, we've go to have production – and good production in other areas," McGuyre said.
            "(In 2019), Shelly (Stafford) was very reliable in the middle and Yossi was doing good," McGuyre said. "But, in the run (to the Final Four), Gia Milana and Marieke (van der Mark) were really playing their best volleyball at that time, too. In the fall, we saw great, great things from Lauren Harrison, and I think Kara (McGhee) and adding Preslie to the mix right now, we have all the pieces in place. We've just got to get everybody battle-tested a little more in these types of matches."
            Wednesday's match will be broadcast by the Longhorn Network, with Tyler Denning and Salima Rockwell calling the action.
            Baylor will return home to host Oklahoma at 5 p.m. Saturday before going on the road for four straight and closing out the spring regular season with another matchup against Texas on March 26.


STORYLINES
BEARS. LONGHORNS. ROUND 3.

No. 6 Baylor travels to Austin for another meeting with No. 2 Texas, the third matchup between the two teams this season.
UT claimed five-set victories in both of the fall contests, counting towards the Big 12 standings, as the teams were ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in the nation, respectively.
The Bears and Longhorns will meet once again on March 26 in Waco, the first home matchup between the two sides for the Bears in 2020-21.
Both spring matches will count as non-conference competitions, as Texas wrapped up the Big 12 title with an undefeated fall slate.

AGAINST THE LONGHORNS

Baylor has never won at Texas. The Longhorns hold a 44-0 record over the Bears in ATX.
UT leads the all-time series 86-3. BU collected its first win over Texas since 2001 on Nov. 20, 2019 in a thrilling five-set affair in Waco.
In the McGuyre era, the Bears are 1-11 against Texas.
UT won both fall matchups between the two sides in five sets.
In the first 2020 meeting on Nov. 5, Baylor jumped out to a strong 2-0 lead with 25-23 and 26-24 set wins, but couldn't hold on as UT stormed back with 25-23, 25-13 and 15-9 set victories to win the match.
The next night, Baylor climbed out of a 2-0 hole to tie the match at 2-2, but ultimately fell in the fifth set 22-25, 24-26, 29-27, 25-14, 6-15.

BIG TIME PLAYERS IN BIG TIME GAMES

Senior OH Yossiana Pressley had her two best performances of the season at Texas in the fall, registering 61 total kills and averaging 6.10 kills per set in the doubleheader.
The reigning AVCA National Player of the Year hit .299 in the two matches and earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors, her 18th-career weekly award setting a conference record.
Pressley's 32-kill outing in the second match was the most by a BU player since her own career-high 39 at Iowa State on Sept. 22, 2018, also a program record.
Junior libero Shanel Bramschreiber collected 31 digs in the series, while sophomore MB Kara McGhee tallied 14 blocks to lead the Bears.

SPRINGING BACK INTO ACTION

Baylor opened its spring season with two victories over North Texas and Pepperdine.
The Bears took care of unranked UNT with a 3-0 sweep, holding the Mean Green to a -.019 hitting percentage in the match.
BU started strong, going off for 17 kills on a .467 efficiency in the first set of Friday's opener.
On Sunday, Baylor outlasted a tough Pepperdine squad, 3-2.
14 total blocks propelled the BU defense past the Waves.
Pepperdine has since moved from unranked to No. 25 in the lastest AVCA Coaches Poll.

PRESSLEY A SENIOR CLASS AWARD CANDIDATE

On Monday, senior OH Yossiana Pressley was selected as one of 30 candidates amongst NCAA volleyball student-athletes considered for the 2021 Senior CLASS Award, which recognizes excellence both on and off the court.
Pressley is the third Baylor selection to the preliminary list, joining Katie Staiger (2016) and Shelly Stafford (2019), who both earned second team recognition by being named Top 10 finalists.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as a senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2020-21 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in April.

ANDERSON ANNOUNCING AUTHORITY

Senior MB Preslie Anderson announced her presence with authority in her first two matches as a Bear, totaling 12 blocks and averaging 1.5 per set in last weekend's two matches.
The Cal-Berkeley transfer recorded a solo block in each of the contests, and led Baylor with nine blocks against Pepperdine, helping BU to its eighth double-digit block performance of the season in Sunday's five-set thriller.
Anderson was key in Baylor holding its opponents to -.019 and .133 hitting percentages on the weekend.

BABY BEARS

In addition to Anderson, Baylor welcomed five freshmen spring enrollees who are ineligible to play this spring.
L/DS Lauren Briseño, S Molly Kipp, S/DS Faith Lynch, L/DS Keagan Polk and MB Kaitlyn Riley are all in the gym with the Bears training for the Fall 2021 season.
Head coach Ryan McGuyre loves that the freshmen will be able to train with and learn from such experienced players like Yossiana Pressley and Hannah Sedwick.
Additionally, BU will add MB Alicia Andrew, MB Ava Grace Haggard, OPP Elise McGhee and OH/ OPP Riley Simpson to round out its freshmen class in the fall.

-BaylorBears.com-

No. 6 VB Ready For Another Shot at No. 2 Texas

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Preslie Anderson

Shanel Bramschreiber

Lauren Harrison

Molly Kipp

Faith Lynch

Kara McGhee

Keagan Polk

Yossiana Pressley

Kaitlyn Riley

Hannah Sedwick

Footer

No. 6 VB Ready For Another Shot at No. 2 Texas

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Preslie Anderson

Shanel Bramschreiber

Lauren Harrison

Molly Kipp

Faith Lynch

Kara McGhee

Keagan Polk

Yossiana Pressley

Kaitlyn Riley

Hannah Sedwick

Related Videos

Promotional Background Photo

Footer