No. 17 Baylor VB Advances to Sweet 16 in Five-Set Thriller

Friday, December 2

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No. 17 Baylor VB Advances to Sweet 16 in Five-Set Thriller

12/2/2022 8:04:00 PM | Volleyball

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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            If Baylor volleyball had any thought of this being some sort of a casual walk in the park, the Bears were sadly mistaken. More like trying to get through a minefield blindfolded.
            Swept 3-0 at home two months ago, the 20^th-ranked and fifth-seeded Rice Owls (27-4) made fourth-seeded and No. 17 Baylor (25-6) earn every point it got in pulling out a five-setter, 16-25, 25-22, 25-23, 14-25, 15-11, in Friday's second-round matchup at the Ferrell Center.
            "The strength and character of this team shines through," said Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre, whose team is advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the fourth-straight year and fifth time in program history. "It's so hard to end a team's season, especially when they're really good. . . . They didn't give us anything at all. I felt like we really had to earn it.
            "Ultimately, this team trusts each other. Such a fun team to coach. They just play so free, and adjust when needed. You don't have to worry about managing emotions."
            It was an emotional night for fifth-year seniors Carly Graham and Anota Adekunle, who saw their Rice volleyball careers come to an end. Adekunle had a match-high 22 kills and hit .512, while Graham had 56 assists, seven digs and three kills for the Owls.
            "We were fighting for each other for every point," said Graham, an all-conference setter for a team that had won 12 of its last 13 since that 3-0 loss to the Bears on Oct. 12. "That's why we can walk out of here with our shoulders back and our heads held high and feel proud of ourselves. We left everything out there . . . that's the proudest loss that could have possibly happened, because we truly gave every single point for each other."
            Rice came out swinging, hitting .312 in the first set and getting six kills from Elllie Bichelmeyer. Adekunle closed it out, getting kills on two of the last three points and finishing it off, 25-16.
            "We were going for it," Adekunle said. "We knew going into this game we were going to have to give it everything that we had here. We did it for each other."
            In a tight back-and-forth second set that featured 11 ties and four lead changes, Baylor trailed Rice, 21-19, on an Adekunle kill. But, the Bears responded by scoring six of the next seven points and closing out the second set, 25-22, with a Lauren Harrison kill.
            Elise McGhee, who had 13 kills and a pair of combo blocks with her older sister, Kara, finished off the third set and gave the Bears a 2-1 lead with a pair of late kills sandwiched around a pair of kills by the Owls.
            Baylor seemingly had all the momentum going into the fourth set, but Rice responded and knotted the match at 2-2 with a dominant 25-14 win. The shifting momentum went back to the Owls, who had won seven of their previous nine five-setters this season.
            But the Bears weren't about to lay down. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fifth set on a solo block by Kara McGhee, an Elise McGhee kill, a combo block by the McGhee sisters and a rare ball-handling error by Graham.
            Rallying from 9-3 and 10-4 deficits, Rice closed the gap to 13-10 and 14-11 before Harrison closed the door with her team-high 19^th kill.
            "It felt pretty good," Harrison said. "But at the end of the day, I was just excited that our season is continuing. That was the most important thing."
            As difficult as it is to bounce back from a 25-14 set loss, "it's not when you have a resilient team and you have a game plan," McGuyre said.
            "We say it all the time, you've got to weather the storms," McGuyre said. "Definitely, a storm crashed on us in the fourth set. But, the principles are, we're going to stay the course. The best way to get through it is to tackle it head-on. We don't want it easy, we don't want excuses. We can't abandon ship, and that's what this team is really good at is not abandoning ship But there's got to be a real change, or we're going to sink. We're going to stick together, but we're going to make some real changes."
           Kara McGhee finished one block shy of a double-double with 12 kills and a Baylor NCAA Tournament-record nine blocks; freshman setter Averi Carlson had a double-double with a career-high 54 assists to go with 11 digs; and freshman right-side hitter Allie Sczech had seven kills and seven blocks. Danyle Courtley (15), Bichelmeyer (14) and Sahara Maruska (12) had double-digit kills for the Owls.
            While Rice ends one of its most successful seasons, Baylor advances to the region semifinals for the fourth-straight year. The Bears will play the winner of Saturday's matchup between No. 2 national seed Louisville and regional No. 5 seed Purdue.

WACO, Texas – Senior Lauren Harrison went for her fourth double-double of the season to lead No. 17 Baylor to a five-set win (16-25, 25-22, 25-23, 14-25, 15-11) over No. 20 Rice to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, on Friday night at the Ferrell Center.

Baylor (25-6) rode the strong performance from Harrison and the combination of Elise and Kara McGhee to the win, which saw Baylor claim the second, third and fifth sets to secure the win. Harrison had 19 kills and 10 digs, adding one block while hitting .333.

The Bears got a second-consecutive double-double from Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year Averi Carlson, who had a career-high tying 54 assists and added 11 digs. A night after setting a Baylor NCAA Tournament three-set record with seven blocks, freshman Allie Sczech again went for seven stuffs, but saw senior Kara McGhee register a nine-block night. Elise McGhee finished with 13 kills and two blocks, while Kara McGhee had 12 kills to go with her nine blocks.

Libero Lauren Briseno had a team-leading 21 digs. Mallory Talbert finished with nine kills.

The champions of Conference USA, Rice (27-4) hit .289 and was led by the dynamic team of fifth-year seniors Carly Graham and Anota Adekunle. Graham, who has won three consecutive C-USA Setter of the Year awards, had 56 assists and seven digs, adding three kills. Adekunle had a match-best 22 kills, hitting .419.

The tilt was a rematch of an Oct. 12 matchup in Houston between the two teams, a 3-0 Baylor sweep.

Baylor will advance to face the winner of the Louisville Sub-Regional, which has featured wins on Friday night – the first day of the two-day regional – from top-seeded and No. 4 Louisville and No. 19 Purdue.

The win marks a fourth-consecutive trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the Bears, who have competed in seven straight NCAA Tournaments. Baylor advanced to its first Final 4 in program history in 2019, lost in the regional semifinal at Nebraska in the 2020 tournament and fell vs. Minnesota last year in the regional semifinal.

The Owls separated in the first set, taking a 12-8 lead after the match was evened at 7-7. The lead grew to 21-13 and Rice was able to put away the game 25-16 for an early 1-0 lead. The Owls hit .314 and the Bears were held to a .188 hitting percentage in the first set.

In the second set, the score went to 9-9 before the Owls notched three of the next four points for a 12-10 lead. After an Elise McGhee kill evened the game at 17, Rice scored the next two for a 19-17 lead and forced a timeout from Baylor Coach Ryan McGuyre. Baylor responded to even the set at 19 and then after falling behind 21-19 and following a second timeout from the Bears, Baylor ripped off five consecutive points to take a 24-21 lead and prompt a Rice timeout. Lauren Harrison's kill clinched the set for the Bears, 25-22. Baylor bounced back in the second set to hit .297, holding Rice to .184.

Baylor trailed 13-11 midway through the third set and then scored four of the next five points to take a 15-14 lead into the media timeout. The Baylor lead grew to 20-17 and after it narrowed to 21-20, the Bears scored three of four points to take a 24-21 lead and finished off the set at 25-23.

Rice took control of the fourth set with a 6-0 run to take an 8-2 lead early in the game. The lead grew to 19-9 late in the set and the Owls secured the fourth, 25-14 to force a fifth set.

In the fifth, the Bears scored the first four points of the game and took a 6-1 lead after a block from Kara McGhee. The Owls closed the lead to 13-10 after an Adekunle kill but the Bears were able to get two of the last three points, with kills from Kara McGhee and the winner from Harrison, to clinch the win.

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