No. 3 VB Sweeps Past Iowa State at Home

Sunday, November 3

Waco, Texas

4:00 p.m. CT

Baylor

19-1, 9-1Big 12

Iowa State

14-8, 5-5Big 12

Iowa State

Baylor

No. 3 VB Sweeps Past Iowa State at Home

11/3/2019 8:16:00 PM | Volleyball

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Bears sweep the season series against the Cyclones for the third-straight season

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Now, that's more like it.
            After a difficult stretch that saw the No. 3 Baylor volleyball team drop six sets combined in its previous three matches, the Bears (19-1, 9-1) returned to their sweeping ways and looked good doing it in beating the visiting Iowa State Cyclones, 25-15, 29-27, 25-18, Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
            "We loved every single second of it," said sophomore right-side hitter Marieke van der Mark, who had a career-high 10 kills and hit .368 with two blocks and five digs. "It was good to show everyone what Baylor volleyball is about."
            Led by Yossiana Pressley's match-high 19 kills, Baylor finished with only 10 attacking errors on 95 swings and hit an efficient .379 while coming up with 45 digs and seven blocks and limiting Iowa State (14-8, 5-5) to just a .174 hitting percentage.
            In the previous three matches, the Bears hit just .184 and averaged 25 errors. The 10 errors are the team's fewest since having 10 against Tennessee as well on Sept. 14.
            "It's a great sign," coach Ryan McGuyre said of the team's low errors. "It makes me so much happier as a coach. We're trying to be at 10 percent (errors), were pretty close to that (10.5 percent). Our last few matches, we were almost double that. Not only is it making the opponents earn points, but it extends some runs and rallies. Maybe we're able to stop them on their first attack. And then if we're not killing it, we know what's coming around the next time around."
            Completing the series sweep of Iowa State, Baylor stayed a game back of top-ranked Texas (16-2, 10-0) in the Big 12 standings. The Longhorns swept West Virginia, 3-0, and will return the trip to Baylor on Nov. 20 after ending the Bears' 16-match winning streak 11 days ago in Austin.
             "I feel relieved, for sure, because we weren't trending the way I wanted to see us trend," McGuyre said. "I think we were able to take a breath from getting out of Norman (Oklahoma) in five sets."
            Expecting the defense to focus on stopping Pressley, the Bears instead ran their offense through the 6-foot-6 van der Mark, who set the tone early with five kills in the first set alone. Baylor had an 86 percent side-out in that first set and hit .400 with just three errors on 30 swings in taking the opening set, 25-15.
            "We knew the 'Deep 1' was open for me, and that's one of my biggest shots," said van der Mark, explaining that that means hitting at the setter. "(Piper Mauck) is a great setter, but we knew that that was one of their weakest defenders, so I could go at her."
            In a back-and-forth second set that went to extra points, Pressley picked it up with seven kills and also had a solo block on Eleanor Holthaus, who led the Cyclones with 16 kills. As a team, Baylor had five solos out of its seven total blocks.
            "I think Yossi's was huge and an exclamation point to help us win that second set," McGuyre said. "We've got to get back to that. We have to make some more solo blocks, honestly. Yossi is one of the best in the country at doing that. Hannah Lockin is capable of doing that as well. Marieke's been coming around. I'd like to be at three blocks per set, but the defense was digging some balls and we were converting at a much, much higher rate. It's tough to win when your opponent is siding out eight out of 10 times you're serving."
            In one change, McGuyre went with Nicole Thomas over freshman middle blocker Kara McGhee in the third set, and the senior responded with two kills in three swings and added a combo block with van der Mark. She had the match-closing point when she crushed a ball to the floor on a set from Lockin in the middle.
            "Nicole always brings such great energy," McGuyre said. "Kara is doing so many good things, she's still one of the best blockers, but we weren't quite getting the offense connective. Nicole is able to hit chutes, so she runs some good middle attacks from maybe a little farther away from the setter. . . . For Nicole to run father away, it could create more space to set the ball somewhere else.
            Baylor will have a midweek bye before facing Texas Tech (14-9, 4-5) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Lubbock. The Red Raiders have lost three in a row after starting league play 4-2.
            "We get to train on things that went wrong out there today, and we get a whole week of practice just to get a little bit simmered down," van der Mark said. "This is where the fun begins."

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – No. 3 Baylor volleyball (19-1, 9-1 Big 12) used a strong offensive showing to sweep Iowa State (14-8, 5-5 Big 12) Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center, 25-15, 29-27, 25-18.

Baylor posted its best offensive outing since Sept. 28 after hitting .379 with two players in double-figure kills. Junior Yossiana Pressley paced all players with 19 kills on a .417 clip while sophomore Marieke van der Mark had a career-high 10 kills on a .368 efficiency.

Pressley's 1,254 career kills passed Jenny DeLue (1990-93) for the ninth-most kills in program history.

Junior Hannah Lockin posted 38 assists and passed Amy Rosenbaum (2012-15) for the fifth-most assists in Baylor history. She now has 2,831 career assists in 77 matches played.

Defensively, senior Braya Hunt led with 10 digs while the Bears outblocked the Cyclones, 7.0-3.0.

The Bears and Cyclones exchanged the first 14 points of the match evenly, but a Pressley kill opened up a 7-0 run with sophomore Shanel Bramschreiber behind the service line to go up 14-7. BU kept its foot on the gas and used a .400 hitting effort and five kills from van der Mark to get on the board first, 25-15.

The offense got off to a hot start again in set two and forced the Iowa State timeout after BU went up 12-8. The Bears held a 24-21 lead, but the Cyclones ran off three straight points to tie it up. Baylor fought off an ISU set point at 26-25 and used three Cyclone errors to take the frame, 29-27.

Iowa State held an early 10-9 lead in the third set, and then three straight Pressley kills forced the ISU timeout. Baylor and Iowa State went back-and-forth, but the Bears closed out the match on an 8-2 run to sweep its 15^th opponent of the season, 25-18.

To keep up with things all season long, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVBall.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor swept the season series against the Cyclones for the third-straight season.
• BU has now won 57 sets and only dropped eight during the 2019 season.
• Baylor is now 9-1 in sets decided in extra points this season.
• Baylor swept its 15^th match of the season and eighth at home.
• Yossiana Pressley led all players with 19 kills, passing Jenny DeLue for the ninth-most kills in program history.
• Hannah Lockin passed Amy Rosenbaum (2012-15) for the fifth-most assists in program history with 38 against the Cyclones.
• Shanel Bramschreiber tied a career-high three service aces against the Cyclones.
• Marieke van der Mark had a career-high 10 kills against the Cyclones, hitting .368 on the afternoon.
• The Bears had a season-high five solo blocks against Iowa State.
• Baylor is 10-0 at home this season, including 5-0 in conference play.
• Baylor is now 42-12 as a ranked team under McGuyre.
• Baylor improved to 26-24 all-time against Iowa State and 7-3 under head coach Ryan McGuyre.
• Baylor had its best offensive outing (.379) since Sept. 28's .386 efficiency at Kansas.

STAT OF THE MATCH
.379 – the offensive efficiency for the Bears against the Cyclones.

TOP QUOTE
Head coach Ryan McGuyre
On the win…
"Double-digit for Marieke (van der Mark). I think that set the tone for us and really opened it up. Teams are going to focus in on Yossi (Pressley), and we got kills in other places. We can certainly go back to Yossi later - having her hit over .400. She played like a First Team All-American and National Player of the Year. You've got to give (Hannah) Lockin credit for good decisions. I thought we passed and dug well, and the next phase went to the setter. Today she made great decisions. She was spot on."

WHAT'S NEXT
BU will have a midweek bye and then head to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech on Saturday. The match is slated for a 1 p.m. CT start on TexasTech.TV.