By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
By her own count, Baylor junior outside hitter Elise McGhee has changed her serve "50 million times since I've been here."
 
If Friday's match against Kansas State was any indication, McGhee shouldn't change again any time soon.
 
Using a powerful topspin jump serve, she had two of her career-high three service aces in a closing 6-0 run and had four of her team high-tying 14 kills in the fourth set to help the 18^th-ranked Bears (8-7, 2-3) close out a 3-1 win over the visiting Wildcats (9-6, 3-2), 29-27, 25-20, 16-25, 25-17, in the second of back-to-back matches at the Ferrell Center.
 
"Elise was the difference down the stretch, for sure," Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said. "(I'm) so significantly proud of such big-time serves and plays and what she was doing right there. Game on the line, it's fun when the ball is in the hands of your best players. She served like an all-conference, All-American, and we needed it, because we really weren't transitioning all that well as far as getting points."
 
For the second time in as many weeks, Baylor bounced back from a five-set loss the first night to win on the second day. Since the start of the 2020 season, the Bears are now 15-1 on the second day when facing teams in back-to-back days.
 
"Before we went into the fourth set, I was like, 'We are not going to a fifth set,''' McGhee said. "Obviously, anything can happen in a fifth set. I knew going into it, I would do everything in my power. I knew everyone on the court and the bench was going to do everything in their power to make sure we did not go to a fifth set."
 
Of course, the way the first two sets went, it looked like it would be another second-day sweep. Led by middle blocker Manuela Bibinbe, the Bears hit an efficient .291 and sided out 73% of the time in taking the first two sets, 29-27, 25-20.
 
After surviving two set points, Baylor closed out the first set with back-to-back kills by Bibinbe and a tip kill from freshman Kyndal Stowers.
 
"Before the match, Coach Mac and all the coaches said, 'Middles, we need you tonight. We need you to do more than you did in yesterday's game,''' said Bibinbe, who set a new career high with 14 kills, hitting .462 with only two errors in 26 total swings. "I think having that in my mind put me in a position where I knew the team would need me tonight, and I had to do my best."
 
The third set was on anomaly. Falling behind 8-2, the Bears never really recovered and hit just .054 with 10 attack errors, three service errors and a ball-handling error by setter Averi Carlson.
 
"I've got to figure it out," McGuyre said of the team's lapses, "because it keeps popping up. Volleyball is about rhythm. It's just a trust, confidence thing that we probably still have to be better. The passes weren't quite as sharp, so then we were probably getting slowed down maybe a little too much. . . . We're probably overcorrecting a little bit if it doesn't go our way. We're trying to be better at next-play mentality. It's just, 'Okay, go and do the next one.'''
 
Baylor was back to form in the fourth set, hitting an efficient .312, siding out at a 58% clip and getting three of its five team blocks to hold the Wildcats to a .108 attack percentage.
 
After a service error by K-State's Aliyah Carter, who had a match-high 21 kills, McGhee finished things from the service line with five-straight points. Riley Simpson had two of her nine kills down the stretch, and then McGhee put the exclamation on it with her third ace of the night.
 
"For me, it was really nice to hear my teammates be like, 'Just swing away. We have all trust in you, no matter what, just high, hard heat,''' McGhee said. "That gave me a lot of confidence to just go up and rip it."
 
Baylor goes back on the road to face Cincinnati (9-5, 2-2) next Thursday and Friday, Oct. 12-13, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Bearkats are currently on a Texas swing, knocking off TCU in a five-setter Friday night and finishing the back-to-back at 7 p.m. Saturday in Fort Worth.
 


WACO, Texas – The 18^th-ranked Baylor volleyball team fought off the Kansas State Wildcats to claim the second match of the two-game series, 3-1, on Friday night at the Ferrell Center. 
 
BU (8-7, 2-3) bounced back against KSU (9-6, 3-3) after falling in five the previous night, winning in four sets, 29-27, 25-20, 16-25, 25-17.
 
Head coach Ryan McGuyre is known to say that the "better team wins the second match" when it comes to back-to-back matches. Baylor is now 15-1 on the second night under McGuyre in back-to-back matches against the same opponent.
 
The Bears were led by Elise McGhee and Manuela Bibinbe with 15 and 14 kills, respectively. McGhee was crucial down the final stretch, and Simpson came in clutch for BU in tough moments.
 
THE RUNDOWN
Set 1
Shaking off the heartbreak of last night, the Bears ripped off a 3-0 run to get the night started. Back-to-back kills from Kansas State brought the score back to 3-2 and a Bibinbe kill moved the score to 4-2. Two Baylor service errors cancelled out two Baylor kills, 6-4, and the Wildcats piled on with two more points to tie it at 6-6. A K-State service error pushed Baylor to 7-6, but a pair of kills gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night at 8-7. After another service error, 8-8, the teams traded kills to find themselves tied once again at 9-9 and 10-10 with an error and ace putting the Bears back on top, 12-10. A kill from Kansas State's Aliyah Carter put her team down one, but Bibinbe's fifth kill of the night thus far regained Baylor's two-point lead. The Wildcats recorded a kill, attack error, and a set error to bring us to the first media timeout, 15-12. Returning to action, Baylor and K-State alternated kills to find themselves at 18-15. Two attack errors and another Bibinbe kill saw the score reach 19-17 and led us into Kansas State's first timeout of the night. An attack error from Wildcat Aniya Clinton pushed Baylor to 20-17, but the Wildcats strung together a kill, a pair of aces, and a successful challenge to reclaim the lead at 21-20. Kills from rookie Kyndal Stowers, Andrew Alicia, and Bibinbe found the Bears with the lead in a tight race, 23-22. A Baylor service error and a kill from McGhee moved the score to set point, 24-23, but a matching kill from Kansas State's Izzi Szulczewski tied it up again at 24-24. A service error gave the Bears a quick advantage, but after a lengthy volley a blocking error tied the score at 25-25. A kill gave the Wildcats advantage but Kyndal Stowers responded to even the set once again. A kill from Kansas State's Shaylee Myers gave them advantage in the fourth set point of set 1, but back-to-back Bibinbe kills returned the lead to Baylor and a kill from Stowers sealed the set, 29-27. 
 
Set 2
The second set promised much of the same back and forth, the teams quickly finding themselves evenly matched at 2-2. An attack error followed by a kill on the part of Kansas State found them again at 3-3. Aliyah Carter's sixth kill of the night put K-State up 4-3 but Stowers' fifth kill moved the score back to 4-4. Carter notched another before Bibinbe recorded her tenth kill – and fifth double-digit-kill match this season – to put Baylor in the lead 6-5. Aces from Stowers and Averi Carlson and a pair of McGhee kills pushed Baylor further ahead, all part of a 7-2 Baylor run that forced a Kansas State timeout at 12-7. The Wildcats fared little better reentering play, seeing a 4-4 split featuring a variety of errors by both sides lead to a 15-11 difference. After notching a kill and two more errors, Kansas State called their second timeout of the set down 18-12. Baylor recorded a service error and Wildcat Shaylee Myers notched a kill to shrink the Bears' lead to four, but another McGhee kill and Bibinbe ace brought the Bears back to a comfortable 20-14. K-State responded with two more points of their own to push Baylor to call a timeout at 20-16. The two teams then swapped kills, first from McGhee, then Kansas State's Sydney Bolding, then Riley Simpson, before a service error from Baylor found the set at 22-19. Kills from Allie Sczech and Manuela Bibinbe created set point, and after a response from the Wildcats staved off the Bears, Sczech went in for the kill – her fourth of the night, claiming set 2 for Baylor at 25-20. 
 
Set 3
Kansas State opened the third set on the positive end of an attacking error followed by an ace, starting hot at 2-0, but Baylor responded quickly with a pair of kills to put the set at a more familiar 2-2. The Wildcats then began a 3-0 run on the back of two Aliyah Carter kills, and despite a Baylor timeout to halt their momentum she found a third immediately after and followed up with a block. A 6-0 run when all was said and done, a service error found the Bears down 8-3. After a kill from Clinton, Baylor found three points in a row to shrink the Wildcats' lead to three, but two more errors put the Wildcats at a more distant 11-6. McGhee and Carter traded kills to make it 12-7.  Two more attack errors from the Bears led to another timeout, Baylor hoping to halt Kansas State's momentum. Back-to-back kills from the Bears shrank the divide to 14-9 but a ball handling error and Myers kill moved the score back to 16-9. A 4-4 stretch followed, before Kansas State began to run away with it, 20-13. Three in a row found K-State ahead at 23-13. Aliyah Carter's fifteenth kill of the night created set point, of which Baylor survived two from a pair of McGhee kills before Carter's sixteenth cemented set 3 for the Wildcats, 25-16.
 
Set 4
Riley Simpson notched a kill to kick off the fourth set, a 2-0 start for the Bears. Kansas State responded in kind to find yet another 2-2 stalemate. After swapping kills to find Baylor down 5-4, Manuela Bibinbe found her career-best thirteenth kill of the night to retie the set at 5-5. The Bears capitalized on the momentum to cancel out an out of bounds call and record an ace, finding a 7-5 lead. The Wildcats responded with a 3-0 run of their own to steal the lead, 8-7 but an attack error equalized the score at 8-8. Twin kills from Brenna Schmidt and Sydney Bolding gave Kansas State a two-point lead, and Bibinbe bested her career high once again to bring the Bears down by one. After trading two more kills, a block from Allie Sczech tied the set at 11-11 before the teams returned to trading blows; six kills later and the Bears found themselves on top at 15-13 headed into a media timeout. Baylor picked up another block reentering play but a service error, Carter's nineteenth kill, and an attack error tied the set once more at 16-16. Here McGhee found twin kills and, aided by a service error, the Bears were once again on top by three headed into a Wildcats timeout. Carter recorded her twentieth kill of the night to shrink the lead to 19-17, but a service error and quick Riley Simpson kill but Baylor up firmly 21-17 and led to K-State's second timeout of the set. Elise McGhee quickly stole the show: a trio of aces with an attack error in the middle secured set 4 and the match for the Baylor Bears. 
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Manuela Bibinbe set a new career-high with 14 kills.
• Elise McGhee matched the team-high with 14 kills.
• McGhee led the team with 4 service aces, three coming in the last four points of the match.
• Carlson recorded 43 assists (most by either team). 
• Briseño led the Bears with 16 digs followed by Carlson with 10.
• Carlson had a double-double on the night.

 
UP NEXT
The Bears hit the road to face Cincinnati in back-to-back matches in Ohio on October 12 and 13.
 
To stay up to date all year long on all things Baylor volleyball, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorVBall.