Baylor Volleyball Falls in Five to Dayton, Ends Season

WACO, Texas — The No. 4 seed Baylor Bears (23-7, 14-4 Big 12) fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, this time in five sets to the No. 5 seed Dayton Flyers (30-2, 18-0 A10) on Friday night at the Ferrell Center. Junior Allie Sczech had 21 kills and just two errors to lead the Bears, but they were outlasted by the Flyers and Lexie Almodovar’s 34 kills.

Almodovar, described by her coach as the best 5-foot-8 outside hitter ever, was a force that the Bears could not overcome despite playing well through the night. 

Both teams hit well but not great with the Bears hitting .282 and the Flyers hitting .275. However, untimely errors proved costly for Baylor as they could not keep their hot play from sets two and three rolling into the last sets of the match.

Unanimous All-Big 12 first-teamer Elise McGhee notched 11 kills in her collegiate finally while Alicia Andrew accounted for eight with her solid performance.

Reflecting after the game McGhee said, “Dayton is a great team and they were getting great swings… the margins are thin when you’re playing a great team.”

The offseason starts now for Ryan McGuyre’s Bears as he and his program look to make it back to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2022 and possibly beyond. 

Set 1

Early on this was a back-and-forth set with Baylor driving hard to the media timeout with a 6-2 run to make it 15-13 at the break. Dayton then took control of the match with a 6-1 run to make it 21-18. Baylor wracked up six errors between service and receiving. The Flyers committed half as many errors of those kinds. The Bears would go on to drop the set 25-22.

Set 2

Dayton jumped out to an early three-point lead making Bear fans in the building nervous that the hole was being dug too deep for a comeback. However, the Baylor attack came to life and the errors were mostly cleaned up from the opening set. A 6-0 run including two Elise McGhee kills gave the Bears a 10-7 lead. 

After rolling with the punches, the Green and Gold threatened to pull away when a Kendal Murphy kill and a Dayton Attack error made it 18-14. The Flyers took a timeout and promptly made a 4–0 run to ties the set, forcing Ryan McGuire to respond with his own timeout.

This timeout worked as well as the previous and Baylor went on a 3-0 run to re-take a lead that they would not relinquish. The finishing blow came in the form of an Alicia Andrew and Allie Sczech block on set point. 25-22 Bears. 

Set 3

With control of the match on the line, the Bears fought out to a 12-8 lead thanks to a great stretch of play from Allicia Andrew. She made two kills and a block with Sczech back-to-back-to-back. 

With their backs against the wall, the Flyers made a strong push with a 5-0 run to make it 16-14 and force a Baylor timeout. A 4-1 return run for the Bears forced a Dayton timeout with the score at 20-18. 

With the Green and Gold closing in on victory in the set, Dayton made a 3-0 run to tie the affair at 23-23 a service error and a receiving error were culprits for the Bears losing the lead. Kendal Murphy made up for this with a key kill to take a 25-24 lead before a Dayton attacking error sealed the set. 26-24 Baylor.

Set 4

The Bears fell behind early in this set with four errors contributing to a 7-3 deficit. Dayton and Baylor traded punches for the next 12 points before Coach McGuyre responded to Dayton pushing the lead to 14-9 with a timeout.

Straight out of that break, the Bears committed a net violation and a receiving error making the Flyers’ lead feel insurmountable. Baylor did well to test that notion making a furious rally in the form of a 7-2 run to draw it back to 22-20. Sadly, the Bears could not finish the rally dropping set four 25-21.

Set 5

Every point was a battle and the teams once again went blow for blow up to Baylor holding a 10-9 lead. A service error from Alicia Andrew started the pivotal 3-0 Dayton run and a pair of kills by Dayton’s Liana Sarkissian sealed the match. 15-12 Dayton. 3-2 Dayton.