Friday, December 6
Waco, Texas
7:00 p.m. CT
Baylor
26-1
3
vs
0
Sacred Heart (First Round)
20-12
1
2
3
F
Sacred Heart
20
18
8
0
Baylor
25
25
25
3
No. 1 VB Sweeps Past Sacred Heart in NCAA First Round
12/6/2019 9:52:00 PM | Volleyball
Bears hit a program-best .443 in a postseason match Friday night
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Ryan McGuyre calls it "just the tip of the iceberg," but sophomore right-side hitter Marieke van der Mark had a career-high 13 kills and hit .600 with only one error to lift top-ranked Baylor volleyball to a 3-0 sweep of Sacred Heart Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"We've talked about her needing 20 (kills), so she's going to get 20 at some point in this tournament, but she was on track today," McGuyre said.
Playing before a home crowd of 1,918 at the Ferrell Center, Baylor (26-1) hit .443 as a team and found its stride in a dominant third set in closing out the visiting Pioneers, 25-20, 25-18, 25-8, to win its 10th in a row and tie the program record for single-season wins.
The Bears, seeking their second Sweet 16 in program history and first in 10 years, will face USC (18-13) in the second round at 8 p.m. Saturday. As the No. 1 overall national seed, they would get to stay at home for the regional round next weekend as well.
"USC is awesome," McGuyre said of the Trojans, who got 17 kills from Brooke Botkin in a 3-0 sweep of SFA in the earlier first-round matchup. "They're physical, they're talented, they're well-coached. They're the same size as Texas, and they're pretty good at all the pins and good middles. So, we've got to play better volleyball.
There were 17 ties and eight lead changes through the first two sets when Baylor struggled to get in a good rhythm.
"Statistically on paper, we hit a lot of benchmarks we were trying to do in our matches," McGuyre said. "We felt like Sacred Heart came ready to play, and we weren't as sharp as we really needed to be in that first set and a half."
Sacred Heart, making its third NCAA Tournament appearance and first in eight years, hit .222 with only five errors in the first set and had a .500 sideout percentage, getting vie kills from Makayla Dole.
"I think we did a nice job of kind of disrupting what they wanted to do to begin with," Sacred Heart coach Rob Machan said. "We were trying to be the aggressor on the attack and the service line. Our block is pretty good, we're a good blocking team. I think it might have caught them by surprise a little bit. But, they adjusted well. They're a great, great team, and they're going to go very far in this tournament."
The Pioneers at least slowed down Big 12 Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley, who had 12 kills with four errors and a .320 hitting percentage. But, the hitters around her picked up the slack, with freshman middle blocker Kara McGhee getting five of her seven kills in the first set.
Van der Mark had just six kills through the first two sets, but the 6-foot-6 sophomore caught fire in the third frame with seven kills on 10 swings and no errors for a .700 hitting percentage. As a team, Baylor hit .500 in the third set with 12 kills and only two errors on 20 swings and sided out 77 percent of the time.
"I think we just all played together really well," said van der Mark, whose previous high was 10 kills. "(Setter Hannah Lockin) kept feeding me the ball, and I kept putting the ball down. Sometimes it's Yossi, sometimes it's me, sometimes it's Kara. Kara came through for us with a big block at the end."
It's what make this Baylor team so dangerous. Pressley came in ranked second nationally with 5.52 kills per set. But, the Bears can attack from every spot on the floor.
McGhee and Gia Milana each had seven kills, Shelly Stafford had five kills, two aces and a pair of blocks, and Lockin finished with three kills on five swings, plus 36 assists, nine digs and three blocks.
"They spread their offense so much," Marchan said. "You can kind of contain certain things, but to take away everything from a team like that is difficult."
USC, which has won six national championships, will be a much stiffer test for the Bears in Saturday's second-round match. Khalia Lanier added 15 kills and the Trojans hit .387 overall against an SFA team (31-2) that had not lost since September.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – No. 1 Baylor volleyball (26-1) opened up the 2019 postseason with a dominant offensive performance to sweep Sacred Heart (20-12) Friday night at the Ferrell Center in Waco, 25-20, 25-18, 25-8.
BU hit a school-best .443 in a postseason match, surpassing the previous best of .364 against Miami (Ohio) in the 2017 NCAA First Round. Six Bears hit over .300 and were led offensively by sophomore Marieke van der Mark's career-high 13 kills on a .600 efficiency. Big 12 Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley had 12 kills on a .320 clip.
BU matched its school record for wins set in 1993 and 1999 (26).
Defensively, freshman Kara McGhee had a match-high four blocks while senior Tara Wulf had 11 digs in the sweep.
BU started slow in the match and trailed 4-1 after back-to-back Pioneer kills. The Bears stormed back and used a van der Mark kill to take the 15-12 lead at the media timeout. BU kept its foot on the gas, hitting .410 to take the first set, 25-20.
The Pioneers led 9-7 in the second set before the Bears tied it up at 12-12 with another van der Mark kill. Back-to-back kills from Pressley gave the Bears the 15-12 lead, and a 5-0 run closed out the set, 25-18.
BU came out fast in the third frame and went up 7-2 after a kill from senior Gia Milana to force the SHU timeout. The Bears closed out the match on 10-0 run behind senior Shelly Stafford's serve, and a solo block from McGhee ended it in straight sets, 25-8.
To keep up with things all season long, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVBall.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor hit a school-best .443 in a postseason match against the Pioneers. It is also a season best.
• BU has now won 78 sets and only dropped 11 during the 2019 season.
• Baylor improved its home record to 14-0 with the win.
• BU matched its school record for wins set in 1993 and 1999 (26).
• Marieke van der Mark led the Bears with a career-high 13 kills on a .600 percentage.
• Tara Wulf had a match-high 11 digs while Kara McGhee tied a match-high four blocks.
• Shelly Stafford had a match-high two service aces against the Pioneers.
• All six attackers hit over .300 in the match, led by McGhee with a .636 efficiency.
• Baylor is now 49-12 as a ranked team under McGuyre.
• Baylor has swept 20 matches this season.
• Baylor improved to 1-0 all-time against Sacred Heart.
• Baylor improved to 2-1 in postseason matches at home.
STAT OF THE MATCH
10-0 – the scoring run the Bears used to close out the match.
TOP QUOTE #1
Head coach Ryan McGuyre
On the win…
"Statistically, on paper, we hit a lot of the benchmarks we were trying to do in our matches. I think we, as a team, felt like Sacred Heart came ready to play and we weren't as sharp as we really needed to be that first set and a half in there, but excited for Marieke (van der Mark) and the match she had, 13 kills, just one error, hit .600, led us in kills and I think for us our stories for each girl in the program, we've all come a long way and so for Marieke when she first got here to be like 'yeah, you're leading us in kills in the NCAA National Tournament' is something we've said. We've talked about you need 20, so she's going to get 20 at some point in this tournament, but she was on track today and for Hannah (Lockin) -- for us to hit .443 -- she did a good job when things weren't quite as crisp as we needed to be."
TOP QUOTE #2
Sophomore Marieke van der Mark
On the match…
"I think we just all played together very well. Hannah (Lockin) kept feeding me the ball, I kept putting the ball down, that's playing volleyball. Sometimes it's Yossi (Pressley), sometimes it's me, sometimes it's Kara (McGhee). Kara came through for a big block at the end, and I think we just played very well together at the end of the stretch there."
WHAT'S NEXT
BU advances to the NCAA Second Round for the fourth-straight season and will face USC on Saturday night at 8 p.m. CT in Waco. The Bears look to advance to their second-ever NCAA Sweet 16 and first since 2009 with a win.
Baylor Bear Insider
Ryan McGuyre calls it "just the tip of the iceberg," but sophomore right-side hitter Marieke van der Mark had a career-high 13 kills and hit .600 with only one error to lift top-ranked Baylor volleyball to a 3-0 sweep of Sacred Heart Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"We've talked about her needing 20 (kills), so she's going to get 20 at some point in this tournament, but she was on track today," McGuyre said.
Playing before a home crowd of 1,918 at the Ferrell Center, Baylor (26-1) hit .443 as a team and found its stride in a dominant third set in closing out the visiting Pioneers, 25-20, 25-18, 25-8, to win its 10th in a row and tie the program record for single-season wins.
The Bears, seeking their second Sweet 16 in program history and first in 10 years, will face USC (18-13) in the second round at 8 p.m. Saturday. As the No. 1 overall national seed, they would get to stay at home for the regional round next weekend as well.
"USC is awesome," McGuyre said of the Trojans, who got 17 kills from Brooke Botkin in a 3-0 sweep of SFA in the earlier first-round matchup. "They're physical, they're talented, they're well-coached. They're the same size as Texas, and they're pretty good at all the pins and good middles. So, we've got to play better volleyball.
There were 17 ties and eight lead changes through the first two sets when Baylor struggled to get in a good rhythm.
"Statistically on paper, we hit a lot of benchmarks we were trying to do in our matches," McGuyre said. "We felt like Sacred Heart came ready to play, and we weren't as sharp as we really needed to be in that first set and a half."
Sacred Heart, making its third NCAA Tournament appearance and first in eight years, hit .222 with only five errors in the first set and had a .500 sideout percentage, getting vie kills from Makayla Dole.
"I think we did a nice job of kind of disrupting what they wanted to do to begin with," Sacred Heart coach Rob Machan said. "We were trying to be the aggressor on the attack and the service line. Our block is pretty good, we're a good blocking team. I think it might have caught them by surprise a little bit. But, they adjusted well. They're a great, great team, and they're going to go very far in this tournament."
The Pioneers at least slowed down Big 12 Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley, who had 12 kills with four errors and a .320 hitting percentage. But, the hitters around her picked up the slack, with freshman middle blocker Kara McGhee getting five of her seven kills in the first set.
Van der Mark had just six kills through the first two sets, but the 6-foot-6 sophomore caught fire in the third frame with seven kills on 10 swings and no errors for a .700 hitting percentage. As a team, Baylor hit .500 in the third set with 12 kills and only two errors on 20 swings and sided out 77 percent of the time.
"I think we just all played together really well," said van der Mark, whose previous high was 10 kills. "(Setter Hannah Lockin) kept feeding me the ball, and I kept putting the ball down. Sometimes it's Yossi, sometimes it's me, sometimes it's Kara. Kara came through for us with a big block at the end."
It's what make this Baylor team so dangerous. Pressley came in ranked second nationally with 5.52 kills per set. But, the Bears can attack from every spot on the floor.
McGhee and Gia Milana each had seven kills, Shelly Stafford had five kills, two aces and a pair of blocks, and Lockin finished with three kills on five swings, plus 36 assists, nine digs and three blocks.
"They spread their offense so much," Marchan said. "You can kind of contain certain things, but to take away everything from a team like that is difficult."
USC, which has won six national championships, will be a much stiffer test for the Bears in Saturday's second-round match. Khalia Lanier added 15 kills and the Trojans hit .387 overall against an SFA team (31-2) that had not lost since September.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – No. 1 Baylor volleyball (26-1) opened up the 2019 postseason with a dominant offensive performance to sweep Sacred Heart (20-12) Friday night at the Ferrell Center in Waco, 25-20, 25-18, 25-8.
BU hit a school-best .443 in a postseason match, surpassing the previous best of .364 against Miami (Ohio) in the 2017 NCAA First Round. Six Bears hit over .300 and were led offensively by sophomore Marieke van der Mark's career-high 13 kills on a .600 efficiency. Big 12 Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley had 12 kills on a .320 clip.
BU matched its school record for wins set in 1993 and 1999 (26).
Defensively, freshman Kara McGhee had a match-high four blocks while senior Tara Wulf had 11 digs in the sweep.
BU started slow in the match and trailed 4-1 after back-to-back Pioneer kills. The Bears stormed back and used a van der Mark kill to take the 15-12 lead at the media timeout. BU kept its foot on the gas, hitting .410 to take the first set, 25-20.
The Pioneers led 9-7 in the second set before the Bears tied it up at 12-12 with another van der Mark kill. Back-to-back kills from Pressley gave the Bears the 15-12 lead, and a 5-0 run closed out the set, 25-18.
BU came out fast in the third frame and went up 7-2 after a kill from senior Gia Milana to force the SHU timeout. The Bears closed out the match on 10-0 run behind senior Shelly Stafford's serve, and a solo block from McGhee ended it in straight sets, 25-8.
To keep up with things all season long, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVBall.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor hit a school-best .443 in a postseason match against the Pioneers. It is also a season best.
• BU has now won 78 sets and only dropped 11 during the 2019 season.
• Baylor improved its home record to 14-0 with the win.
• BU matched its school record for wins set in 1993 and 1999 (26).
• Marieke van der Mark led the Bears with a career-high 13 kills on a .600 percentage.
• Tara Wulf had a match-high 11 digs while Kara McGhee tied a match-high four blocks.
• Shelly Stafford had a match-high two service aces against the Pioneers.
• All six attackers hit over .300 in the match, led by McGhee with a .636 efficiency.
• Baylor is now 49-12 as a ranked team under McGuyre.
• Baylor has swept 20 matches this season.
• Baylor improved to 1-0 all-time against Sacred Heart.
• Baylor improved to 2-1 in postseason matches at home.
STAT OF THE MATCH
10-0 – the scoring run the Bears used to close out the match.
TOP QUOTE #1
Head coach Ryan McGuyre
On the win…
"Statistically, on paper, we hit a lot of the benchmarks we were trying to do in our matches. I think we, as a team, felt like Sacred Heart came ready to play and we weren't as sharp as we really needed to be that first set and a half in there, but excited for Marieke (van der Mark) and the match she had, 13 kills, just one error, hit .600, led us in kills and I think for us our stories for each girl in the program, we've all come a long way and so for Marieke when she first got here to be like 'yeah, you're leading us in kills in the NCAA National Tournament' is something we've said. We've talked about you need 20, so she's going to get 20 at some point in this tournament, but she was on track today and for Hannah (Lockin) -- for us to hit .443 -- she did a good job when things weren't quite as crisp as we needed to be."
TOP QUOTE #2
Sophomore Marieke van der Mark
On the match…
"I think we just all played together very well. Hannah (Lockin) kept feeding me the ball, I kept putting the ball down, that's playing volleyball. Sometimes it's Yossi (Pressley), sometimes it's me, sometimes it's Kara (McGhee). Kara came through for a big block at the end, and I think we just played very well together at the end of the stretch there."
WHAT'S NEXT
BU advances to the NCAA Second Round for the fourth-straight season and will face USC on Saturday night at 8 p.m. CT in Waco. The Bears look to advance to their second-ever NCAA Sweet 16 and first since 2009 with a win.
Team Stats
SHU
BU
Kills
25
47
Errors
22
8
Attempts
97
88
Hitting %
.031
.443
Points
32.0
58.0
Assists
23
45
Aces
2
4
Blocks
5.0
7.0
Game Leaders
Kills
13
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
12
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
4
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Players Mentioned
MB
/ VolleyballOH
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
MB
/ VolleyballOPP
/ Volleyball
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