No. 21 Baylor VB Readies for Road Swing, beginning at Kansas State

[Roberts, Matt]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Nov. 8, 2025

No. 21 Baylor VB Readies for Road Swing, beginning at Kansas State
The Bears aim to snap a four-match road losing streak
For more information, contact: Matt Roberts, 254-227-2280, WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu<mailto:WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu>
Volleyball Media Materials: https://baylorbea.rs/vbmedia


MANHATTAN, Kan. – No. 21 Baylor volleyball opens a pivotal two-match road trip this week, beginning Wednesday night against Kansas State in Manhattan before closing the swing Sunday at Houston.

The Bears (17-8, 9-5 Big 12) enter the week ranked No. 21 in the latest AVCA poll and sit at No. 22 in the RPI, riding momentum from a strong home stand that included sweeps over West Virginia and Utah.

In last week’s sweep of Utah, Baylor hit a season-best .337 in Big 12 play and .652 in the second set, one of the top 10 single-set marks in program history. The Bears also fired 10 aces, matching their second-highest total this season. Sophomore MJ McCurdy wants to see this team continue to put teams away when the Bears get the upper hand early in the match.

“I think we just need consistency in every set,” she said. “We can’t get comfortable and think we've won it just because we won the first set. That is something that we've been working on, and sweeping both games this weekend gives us really good momentum going into this week on the road.”

Baylor has been dominant when establishing early control this season, posting a 13-2 mark when winning the opening set. The formula has remained consistent, BU is 14-1 when out-hitting its opponent and winless (0-7) when being out-hit.

Baylor’s trip to the Little Apple marks the start of a challenging final stretch with three of its last four regular-season matches on the road. BU has had Kansas State’s number in recent years, winning 15 of the last 17 meetings to even the all-time series at 30 apiece. The Bears have also taken the last three straight over the Wildcats, who are receiving votes in this week’s AVCA poll.

Freshman standouts continue to drive Baylor’s late-season surge. Libero Morgan Madison is on pace to shatter the program’s freshman record for digs per set (3.50) and has already totaled 294 digs on the year.

Ksenia Rakhmanchik is coming off a big week that won her Big 12 Rookie of the Week for a second time this season. The Minsk, Belarus, native ranks third in Baylor history for kills by a freshman with 239, just 56 shy of Shelly Stafford for second. Last time out, Rakhmanchik tallied a program-record seven aces against Utah, the most by a BU freshman in a three-set match.

First serve against Kansas State is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Morgan Family Arena. The match will stream live on ESPN+, with Brian Smoller, Liz Wegner-Busch and Sophie Smith calling the action.

Single-game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at Baylorbears.com.<https://baylorbears.evenue.net/list/VB> Follow @BaylorVball on X, Instagram and Facebook for additional updates.

—Baylorbears.com—


Matt Roberts | Director of Athletic Communications

Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-227-2280

[signature_339785252]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/bumedia/attachments/20251111/c9b33b5f/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001[49].png
Type: image/png
Size: 14098 bytes
Desc: image001[49].png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/bumedia/attachments/20251111/c9b33b5f/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: BU VB Game Notes 2025_KSTATE_Houston.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 6328402 bytes
Desc: BU VB Game Notes 2025_KSTATE_Houston.pdf
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/bumedia/attachments/20251111/c9b33b5f/attachment-0001.pdf>