No. 6 Baylor VB Escapes at Rice in Five Sets

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – March 19, 2021

No. 6 VB Escapes at Rice in Five Sets
Pressley leads all players with 26 kills, Bears tally four blocks in final five points
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

THE RUNDOWN
HOUSTON – Led by Yossiana Pressley’s 26 kills, No. 6 Baylor volleyball outlasted Rice on its home floor Friday night in five sets, 23-25, 25-16, 18-25, 25-21, 15-10.

The performance marked Pressley’s sixth outing of the season above 20 kills and 31st of her career. BU (18-4) also received a strong contribution from Lauren Harrison (19 kills), while four Bears tallied double-digit digs in Pressley, Shanel Bramschreiber, Campbell Bowden and Callie Williams.

Rice (13-4) made use of BU’s slow start, though the Bears gained momentum near the end of the first frame. Harrison collected a team-high six kills in the set, but the Owls edged BU by two points to take the early lead.

In the second set, Harrison’s service ace at 12-8 highlighted a four-point run for the Bears. Bramschreiber added another two aces to increase the lead to 16-9. Marieke van der Mark’s kill at 23-14 helped Baylor to even the contest, as the Bears took advantage of the Owls’ -.056 efficiency in the frame.

Rice answered back with a third-set win, but Pressley started to find her form with a whopping nine kills in the set. BU felt a sense of urgency heading into the fourth and rallied behind another nine putaways by the reigning national player of the year.

In the fourth, AJ Koele checked in and sparked the Bears with a kill at 3-2. Then, Pressley tallied five consecutive points to move the lead to 15-10. Harrison got in on the fun and accounted for five-straight BU points through 21-17 as the Bears seemed to kick into gear, sending the contest to a fifth set.

While the offense had found its rhythm, it was the defense that showed up in the final frame for the Bears. After the two sides traded points until 9-9, a Rice service error and a double block by Kara McGhee and Hannah Sedwick gave BU a two-point lead. The tandem next combined for another rejection at 12-10 and Sedwick put down a solo stuff a point later, giving the Bears some breathing room. Once again, the pair combined at 14-10 and an Owls attack error finished it off, sending Baylor home with its 18th win of the season and fifth in five sets.

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

HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor won its fifth five-set match of the season.
• BU’s eight five-set contests this season are its most since 2018.
• The Bears totaled 13 blocks for the second-straight match, and 10th time this season with a double-digit output.
• Yossiana Pressley recorded her sixth outing of the season and 31st performance of her career with at least 20 kills.
• Pressley’s 26 putaways were her most since Nov. 6, 2020 at No. 1 Texas.
• Lauren Harrison eclipsed double-digits in kills for the 14th time this year with 19.
• Four Bears tallied double-digit kills in Pressley (15), Shanel Bramschreiber (15), Callie Williams (13) and Campbell Bowden (10).
• Pressley and Williams each collected double-doubles for the second-straight match, their seventh and eighth of the season, respectively.
• Hannah Sedwick led the Bears with 27 assists, while Williams added 19.
• AJ Koele made her 10th appearance of the season and notched her first kill since BU’s season-opener at Kansas on Sept. 25, 2020.

STAT OF THE MATCH
26 – Yossiana Pressley racked up 26 kills, her sixth 20-kill outing of the season and 31st of her career.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Ryan McGuyre
On tonight’s match…
“We weren’t playing very well tonight on the road. We did a lot of things to give away points and just made it much more difficult on ourselves than it needed to be. [We had] healthy resiliency, Yossi [Pressley] carried us offensively down the stretch and we finally started to get the blocks and digs that we needed. Tonight was an ugly win, find-a-way to get the win and get back on the bus. A lot of takeaways on things we need to train at and be much sharper on to get back to playing healthy Baylor volleyball.”

Senior Yossiana Pressley
On carrying the load down the stretch…
“My team needed me to get kills, so we made the adjustment to go high and hit over them. I was struggling in the beginning, the connection [with the setters] just wasn’t there, so we made that adjustment and I feel like that took it to the next level. I was just doing my job.”

On what the team can learn from this week’s matches…
“I feel like it further exploited what we need to work on, and yesterday [against Houston] was sort of a wake up call. Like, hey, we need to get it together. It just shows that we need to get the proper training in, and breakdown what we need to work on to build back up. We need to fill in those gaps because we are capable of winning, we’re just missing a few pieces.”

WHAT'S NEXT
No. 6 Baylor (18-4) hosts No. 2 Texas (20-0) on Friday, March 26, at 6 p.m. CT at the Ferrell Center. It will be the fourth meeting between the Bears and Longhorns this season, but the first meeting between the two sides in Waco.

-BaylorBears.com-


__________________________________

Max Calderone | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (VB, MTEN, EQ)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
O: 254-710-3073 | C: 254-265-1639

[signature_311124414]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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