Preview: No. 3 VB Hosts No. 10 Kansas State To Close Fall Slate

	BAYLOR BEARS (11-3) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Ryan McGuyre (Biola, 1998) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)	BAYLOR (11-3) vs. KANSAS STATE (10-4) Nov. 20, 2020 • 5 p.m. CT Nov. 21, 2020 • 2 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center Live Stats: baylorstats.com WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ Baylor Social Media:

	KANSAS STATE WILDCATS (10-4) Location: Manhattan, Kansas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Suzie Fritz (Florida Atlantic, 1994) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes (PDF)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Typically, this is Ryan McGuyre's favorite time of the year.
            In a normal year, Baylor volleyball would be days away from finishing the regular season and getting ready for a watch party and hot cocoa at the McGuyre family home.
          Thanks to COVID-19, though, 2020 is anything but normal.
            Instead of preparing for the NCAA Tournament, the third-ranked Bears (11-3) will cap off the fall season with a pair of matches against 10^th-ranked Kansas State (10-4) this weekend and take a four-month break before a spring season that is still taking shape.
            "It's definitely going to feel different," said McGuyre, whose Baylor team will host the Wildcats at 5 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center. "We'll get through it, and it will be like a halftime, to me. I'm excited, because I know how much better we can get. After the matches will feel anticlimactic. Going into, it's kind of our early-round playoff-type experience, I feel. We'll just have to wait to April to feel it again."
            Friday's match is exactly a year to the date of Baylor's historic five-set win over Texas that catapulted the Bears to a share of the Big 12 championship and a No. 1 overall seed for the 2019 NCAA Tournament that ended with a national semifinal loss to Wisconsin.
            This time, McGuyre's squad is trying to bounce back from a pair of five-set losses at top-ranked Texas.
            "We said early on when we stubbed our toe against Kansas, the championship this year is won in April," McGuyre said. "So, what do we have to do now that can help us be the best version of ourselves in April? You let it sting, you let it realize that the sweep was one or two points in the third set – win a joust, that's one more serve in, rather than one more serve out. To me, that's mental maturity and being able to stay the course at a championship level."
            Senior outside hitter Yossiana Pressley played at that championship level against Texas. Battling through nagging injuries all season, Pressley had 29 kills in the first match and then a season-high 32 the next night to set a Big 12 record with her 18^th weekly award as Offensive Player of the Week.
            "That was probably the first game I felt completely fresh," said Pressley, who leads the Big 12 and ranks sixth national with 4.72 kills per set. "I had told Lauren (Harrison), 'Wow, I feel good!' And I haven't felt that way in a long time, especially with the hamstring, shoulders, knees. You know, old lady stuff. I was just so happy that I had the opportunity to feel fresh and alive, but definitely want to build off that."
            This would also be the time when seniors are recognized, and middle blocker Laché Harper will be recognized on Saturday with her parents in town this weekend. The grad transfer from UCF plans to "finish what we started" and play in the spring, "but her plan was always a one-year grad transfer," McGuyre said.
            With the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility for fall-sport athletes, McGuyre said Pressley and Andressa Parise will both return in 2021, and All-American setter Hannah Sedwick is about "90-10 on that."
            "Yossi's original plan was to graduate and be done, but we're very blessed and excited to have her back," McGuyre said. "I think she just started looking like her fresh self this last week in practice. Her and Hannah are connecting really well out of the back row, which we've missed that all season long. It used to be the automatic go-to, and then we weren't sure what we were getting as much. So, she's going to be the best of the best, I think, next year."
            Kansas State, which had finished in one of the bottom two spots in the Big 12 standings each of the last three seasons, has been the league's surprise team and sits just a game behind the Bears coming into this final weekend.
            Led by freshman outside hitter Aliyah Carter (3.8 kills per set) and grad transfer setter Shelby Martin from East Carolina (9.1 assists per set), the Wildcats have won five matches in a row and are 6-2 in five-set matches.
            "I feel like they've got in those missing pieces that they haven't had in the past couple years," Pressley said. "They've always been a solid team, but just weren't able to finish, possibly, or were just missing something. I feel like they have a lot of offensive weapons and they're more level-headed."
            The Friday and Saturday matches will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor All-American Katie Smith calling the action.

STORYLINES

ANOTHER TOP-10 SHOWDOWN

Following its bye week, No. 3 Baylor will face a top-10 opponent for the second series in a row as No. 10 Kansas State comes to Waco.
The Bears are 2-2 against ranked opponents this season after dropping both matches to No. 1 Texas.
BU is 5-12 against top-10 opponents under sixth-year head coach Ryan McGuyre.

WHAT'S ON THE LINE

Second place in the league is up for grabs as K-State enters the series just one game back of the Bears in the Big 12 standings.
Baylor is looking to tie its second-best conference mark with 13 wins (2017).
The Bears went a program-best 15-1 last season in Big 12 play.
BU has now collected at least 11 conference wins in each of the last four seasons.

AGAINST THE WILDCATS

BU is riding a three-match win streak against the Wildcats, though K-State owns the all-time series 29-20.
In the McGuyre era, the Bears are 7-3 against Kansas State.
In their last meeting, Baylor swept K-State in Manhattan, Kansas.
Each of the last four contests have been sweeps, as BU has come out on top in each of the last three matchups.

BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN

Senior OH Yossiana Pressley continues to smash records, as she was most recently named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 10 after the series at No. 1 Texas.
The honor was Pressley's 18th-career weekly conference award, a record-breaking achievement as she now sits alone atop the Big 12 record book for most all-time weekly awards.
The reigning national player of the year put down 61 kills on a .299 efficiency, averaging 6.10 kills per set and accounting for 65 total points. She also added four solo blocks and 14 digs.
Her 32 kills in Nov. 5's match were the most by a BU player since her own career-high 39 at Iowa State on Sept. 22, 2018, also a program record.
In the series opener, Pressley opened the match without an error through two sets, tallying 18 kills on her first 30 swings.
She also became Baylor's rally-scoring era leader with 1,704 career kills.
Baylor has garnered seven Big 12 weekly awards in 2020, the most in the league.

ALL-AMERICAN CONNECTION

With Hannah Sedwick returning from injury to make her first start of the season at Texas, the Bears had two 2019 All-Americans on the floor.
Sedwick and Pressley found their rhythm of old, as Sedwick tallied 67 assists and Pressley recorded 61 kills in two matches against the Longhorns.
In just her third appearance of 2020, Sedwick played all six rotations for the first time this year as she had seen limited playing time previously.

-BaylorBears.com-

Preview: No. 3 VB Hosts No. 10 Kansas State To Close Fall Slate

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Laché Harper

Andressa Parise

Yossiana Pressley

Hannah Sedwick

Footer

Preview: No. 3 VB Hosts No. 10 Kansas State To Close Fall Slate

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Laché Harper

Andressa Parise

Yossiana Pressley

Hannah Sedwick

Related Videos

Promotional Background Photo

Footer