WACO, Texas – No. 20 Baylor Volleyball earned its first ranked win of the season with a 3-2 victory over No. 9 TCU on Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
In front of the largest crowd of the season, Baylor got off to a good start in the first set, leading by as many as four at 16-12 before the Frogs closed the gap to make it 19-19. The Bears picked up the following two points and would not look back, taking the first stanza 25-23.
Like Texas Tech on Wednesday night, TCU answered in the second frame, edging the Bears 25-23 to even the match. In set three, Baylor stormed out to an early 8-1 lead and controlled the momentum throughout, closing with a 25-19 win to retake the lead.
After TCU forced a decisive fifth set with a 26-24 win in the fourth, Baylor responded again, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The Frogs eventually evened the match at seven, only to see a 5-0 spurt from the green and gold to take control of the set and cinch the match in favor of the home team.
Head coach
Ryan McGuyre was proud to see his team prevail in five sets in front of a great crowd at the Ferrell Center on Saturday.
"We for sure felt the love," he said. "This team loves playing for the Lord and for everybody else out there. I think it's big for us to win the fifth set, because you look at our other ranked losses, and we were close in the fifth set. So, to get over the hump and win that one is really important. It's also big because our freshmen got the experience playing at a high level against a highly-ranked team, because everybody in the Big 12 is good. Hopefully, we can capture how hard it was to win and work hard again in practices, bringing that same mindset next time."
Freshman
Bailey Warren led the way with a career-high 16 kills to pace the Baylor attack.
Ksenia Rakhmanchik recorded her first career double-double, finishing with 13 kills and 10 digs. Defensively, the Bears turned in a season-high 88 digs, the most in a match since recording 105 against No. 18 Minnesota in September 2024.
Morgan Madison anchored the back row with 22 digs, while
Tehani Ulufatu added a career-best 21, giving the Bears two players with 20 or more digs in a match for the first time since last year's win over Minnesota.
Improving to 7-0 this season when winning the opening set, the Bears also moved to 36-9 against in-state Big 12 opponents in the McGuyre era. The win marks Baylor's first over a ranked opponent since defeating then-No. 18 TCU at the Ferrell Center in 2024.
BU returns to the floor on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when they host another in-state rival, the Houston Cougars. ESPN+ will have live coverage, with stats available at
BaylorBears.com/stats.
Single-game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at
Baylorbears.com. Follow @BaylorVball on X, Instagram and Facebook for additional updates.
—Baylorbears.com—