No. 15 Baylor Volleyball Kicks off Baylor Invitational with Colorado State

WACO, Texas – The No. 15-ranked Baylor volleyball team is set for its home opener on Thursday at 6 p.m. against Colorado State in the opening match of the Baylor Invitational.

BU (3-2) welcomes the Rams (4-2), Arizona State (4-2) and Evansville (2-6) in for the first home stretch of the season, with matches taking place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Ferrell Center.

The Bears have never faced the Sun Devils or Rams at home, and Saturday will be the first all-time meeting between Baylor and Evansville.

BU is coming off a 2-1 weekend in Malibu, Calif., at the Pepperdine Asics Classic, falling to Pepperdine and overtaking San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara, respectively. The match with UCSB was the first sweep for the Bears of the season. Senior Lauren Harrison earned All-Tournament honors for her team-best 37 kills and 43 overall points. Riley Simpson was named Big 12 Rookie of the Week for her 36 kills and .329 hitting percentage over the three matches, her first Big 12 weekly award.

Baylor is currently leading the Big 12 Conference in blocks per set at 2.82, ranking 16th overall in the country. With that, senior Kara McGhee leads the Big 12 in the same category and is 18th in the NCAA at 1.55 blocks per set. The Bears are second in the conference and 38th in the country for team total blocks with 56.5.

Colorado State (4-2) is coming off a six-match home stretch, falling to Northern Colorado in four sets and Arkansas in three, while finding wins over North Carolina, UC Santa Barbara, Florida Gulf Coast and Alabama State. The Rams are led by Kennedy Stanford in kills with 63, Ciera Pritchard in assists with 189, Jacqi Van Liefde in blocks with 21, and five different players have four aces each.

QUICK HITTERS

• The Bears open the home schedule with the Baylor Invitational, hosting Colorado State, Arizona State and Evansville
• BU has never faced Evansville in its history, while it’s never faced CSU or ASU at home in Waco
• Baylor has had two players named Rookie of the Week by the Big 12 in three weeks of play: freshman setter Averi Carlson (8/30) and redshirt freshman outside hitter Riley Simpson (9/6)
• The Bears lead the Big 12 in blocks per set at 2.82, while Kara McGhee leads the conference in b/s at 1.55

The first 100 Baylor students in attendance at Thursday’s matchup will receive a free Rudy’s sandwich.

Live stats for the match and all the matches of the Baylor Invitational can be found at BaylorBears.com/stats.

The match between Baylor and CSU will be broadcast on the Big 12 Network on ESPN+, with Baylor volleyball alumna Katie Smith and “Voice of the Bears” John Morris on the call.

QUOTES

All from head coach Ran McGuyre:

• On experience gained: “Opening weekend I thought we grew up a lot as a team it was two top five matches. And one thing we can't rush is experience, so the way to get that is a day at a time and get out there and play.”
• On blocking: “Blocking I feel like is going to be a strength of this team and that showed up and helped us stay the course with Wisconsin”
• On the learning curve: “We can't play it safe, because it slows down your rate of learning. We believe speed of learning is a competitive advantage. As young as we are, I think we've got some really intelligent women on this team. So we've got to stay committed to that, even when things aren't going well.”
• On the upcoming opponents: “With with Colorado State, Arizona, state Evansville coming up, you know, those are conference equivalent type foes and so it'll tell us where we're at.”
• On playing twice on Saturday: “Preferably not a fan of playing two but also this young team I wanted to make sure we're getting the matches in a little bit more in preseason.”
• On playing twice on Saturday continued: “Yes, I'm concerned a little of fatigue. But our opponents are in a similar boat with that. It's about making good decisions, so if you can make it when you're tired, then you're definitely going to make them when you're fresh.”
• On desired improvement: “We'd love to see our serve and pass game continue to pull ahead... definitely on the serve receive. I think serving we're pretty tough, we're pretty accurate. We have got to keep it at a higher percentage. We'd like to be 93% or higher for each server.”