No. 24 Baylor VB Clips Houston for Ryan McGuyre’s 250th win

Friday, October 23

Waco, Texas

7 p.m.

Baylor

13-5,5-3Big 12

Houston

11-8,4-4Big 12

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Houston	25	25	16	19	8	2
Baylor	21	21	25	25	15	3

Match Book

10/23/2026 10:25:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Match Book

BU records a reverse sweep for the first time since 2021

By: Rylee White

WACO, Texas - No. 24 Baylor volleyball rallied to reverse a sweep of Houston, 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-8), Friday night at the Ferrell Center. The win was head coach Ryan McGuyre's 250th Baylor win, making him the first coach in program history to reach that mark.

The Bears (13-5, 5-3 Big 12) have now won four straight matches and 12 in a row over the Cougars. Baylor hit .315 and held Houston to .158, outblocking the Cougars 15-6, with 12 of those blocks coming in the final three sets.

Ksenia Rakhmanchik led all players with 23 kills on .417 hitting and finished with 25 points. Bailey Warren added 12 kills and hit .367 off the bench, including the last two Baylor kills of the match. Nadiya Johnson had eight kills and a season-high seven blocks, and Victoria Davis added seven kills and six blocks.

Isabela Haggard recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 42 assists, 10 digs and four blocks. Morgan Madison led the back row with 15 digs. MJ McCurdy served three aces in the fourth set, and Tehani Ulufatu added two.

RUNDOWN
Houston scored five of the first six points and led 10-5 before Baylor answered. Haggard had a kill, and Johnson and Mya Hemmer's solo blocks helped fuel a 5-0 run that tied the set 10-10. The Cougars then pulled ahead again and closed out the frame 25-21.

In the second, the two battled early, but Houston broke a 10-10 tie with four straight points before Baylor cut a five-point deficit to 19-18 on kills from Rakhmanchik and Davis. The Cougars scored the next three points and took the set 25-21 to lead 2-0.

Baylor turned the match around in the third set. Ulufatu served back-to-back aces early, and after a 12-12 tie, Rakhmanchik had kills on consecutive points to start a run in which the Bears outscored Houston 13-4 the rest of the way. Davis and Warren added kills during the stretch. Lacy Tinnell entered the lineup to start the third, assisted Johnson on back-to-back blocks, and then ended the set with a kill to claim set three, 25-16.

The Bears scored the first four points of the fourth set and never trailed. Rakhmanchik had eight kills in the frame, and McCurdy served back-to-back aces to make it 15-10. Houston scored four straight to cut it to 20-17, but Baylor won five of the next seven points. The set ended 25-19 on a block by Johnson and Tinnell. The Bears held Houston's hit percentage to .034 in the fourth.

In the fifth, blocks on three straight points by Davis with Johnson, Haggard and Rakhmanchik helped Baylor take an 8-3 lead. The Cougars got within one, but the Bears took seven of the last eight points, boosted by a Rakhmanchik kill and ace, and two Warren kills, to win the set 15-8 and complete the reverse sweep.

GAME NOTES

McGuyre now has 250 wins at Baylor and continues to add to his record as the winningest coach in program history.
This was Baylor's first reverse sweep since March 18, 2021, which was also against Houston, in Houston.
Baylor is now 1-4 this season when trailing 0-2 and 2-1 in five-set matches.
The Bears' 15 blocks were their second-most this season, behind the 20 they had at Hawaii on Aug. 29.
Baylor has won 12 straight against Houston.
Rakhmanchik has scored 23 kills in back-to-back matches, and her 23 against Houston tied her second-most this season.
Rakhmanchik extended her streak of double-digit kill matches to 27 and is 26 kills away from 700 for her career.
Johnson's seven blocks were the most of her career, topping the six she had at Hawaii on Aug. 29.
Haggard's double-double was her fifth this season. Her 10 digs pushed her to 400 career digs.
McCurdy's three aces were her most this season.

QUOTABLE
MJ McCurdy on her Big third Set… It was great. You never know when your number is going to be called, and I serve like that in practice every day, so it's kind of the same thing. Coach talks, in practice, about putting yourself in a game-like situation. I wasn't really nervous. I felt ready to go.

Bailey Warren on carrying momentum into Sunday…I think we can definitely just keep building off the energy that we brought in the last 3 sets. We said something needed to change after the first two, and I think just coming out respecting the team automatically and just doing our best on our side of the net and continuing that like for the rest of the season.

Coach Ryan McGuyre on the switch made…Blocking showed up for sure; that was something that needed to be important to us beforehand. You just look at them like they had 19 kills in the first set, so we just started limiting the points they're getting off there, and they got great arms, and we knew that coming in…We really just need to maintain what we're doing offensively. I didn't feel like we were struggling that bad, like we're hitting over 250, 300 most of the time, but the service team needed to be better throughout the night, but got a bit better as the match went on."

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor stays at home, welcoming No. 17 Kansas to the Ferrell Center on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. CT. The match will air on ESPN, and stats will be available all season at BaylorBears.com/Stats.

Season and single-match tickets are on sale now for the 2026 season. You can find them at BaylorBears.com/tickets or by calling the Baylor Athletics Ticket Office at 254-710-1000.

To stay up to date with Baylor Volleyball all year long, follow the program on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok: @BaylorVBall. Want to support the team? You can do so by giving to the One Way Club.

—Baylorbears.com—