![]() "Lauren has really been mad at me for not letting her play six rows until this year. But this year, she's had the biggest impact in not only influencing the team, but being an encouragement to me. ![]() Kara, Elise's big sister, has never had the loudest voice in the gym. " Mallory Talbert came in and just in a great way could relate to the freshmen as a fifth-year senior. ![]() We arrived at the same place, unfortunately, as last year," he said. McGuyre called his senior trio "spectacular women." I'm excited to see what this team does next season. "This obviously wasn't the outcome we wanted," Harrison said, "but I think we've just grown so much as a team over the season. Kara McGhee, Harrison and Talbert finished their collegiate careers, but they were the only upperclassmen in a 10-player rotation that included freshman starters Carlson, Averi Sczech and Alexis Dacosta. 333 for the match with only one error in nine total swings. She had four kills and two blocks and hit a team-high. Senior middle blocker Kara McGhee became the first player in program history to make it to four-straight region semifinals. Harrison added eight digs and two blocks, Lauren Briseno had 12 digs and one of the team's three aces and freshman setter Averi Carlson had 26 assists and seven digs. Then, the Cardinals finished off the third set and the match with a 9-3 run, ending it with a kill by middle blocker Phekran Kong. They won the rallies they should have."ĭeBeer, who missed 12 games earlier this year with a knee injury, had six kills and two blocks in a dominant second set. "I feel like we didn't have as many go our way, so that had the energy shift. "I think you want to be terminal, and you want to win those long rallies, because it leads to lots of energy on either side," said McGhee, who had three of her eight kills in the first set. Mallory Talbert had two kills and an ace to pull the Bears back within one, 24-23, before Louisville setter Raquel Lazaro closed it out with a dump kill. Back-to-back blocks and a 3-0 run forced McGuyre to call his second timeout of the set. Toe-to-toe with the Cardinals in the first set, Baylor never trailed by more than five points and tied it up for the fifth time at 20-20 on a Harrison kill. We were seeing four hands more often in our face when we were trying to attack the ball." ![]() (Louisville's) blocks were much more well-formed after the first set. Our first touch wasn't good enough off serve receive. You have to start hitting it to some different places. "They've seen you hit it a thousand times over the year. I think for some of our younger hitters, they default to that: See ball, hit ball," McGuyre said. "You can't just have one shot or hit hard straight ahead. Louisville finished with a 10.0-3.0 edge in blocks and 46-39 in digs while holding the Bears to a. 5, 2021.īaylor, which fell in the region semifinals for the third-straight year after making the program's only Final Four appearance in 2019, was led by Elise McGhee and Lauren Harrison with eight and seven kills, respectively. region final to face third-seeded Oregon (26-5), while the Bears (25-7) were swept for the first time since a 3-0 loss to No. The Cardinals recorded their sixth-straight sweep and third in a row in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to Saturday's 3 p.m. The ball comes on you a little hotter, a little faster." It's the first time they've been in this atmosphere. "To be honest, that's the only thing this team doesn't have: experience. "A great atmosphere here, a first-time experience," Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said of the crowd of 5,002. But at least on this day, the Cardinals' experience was their trump card.Ī Final Four team last year, Louisville (29-2) used the hot hands of ACC Player of the Year Claire Chaussee and 2021 All-American Anna DeBeer with 11 kills apiece in a 3-0 sweep of Baylor, 25-23, 25-16, 25-17, Thursday afternoon in the NCAA region semifinals at the KFC Yum! Center. That youth – with three freshman starters – still carried the Bears to a runner-up finish in the Big 12, a 25-win season and their fourth-straight NCAA region semifinal. – Compared to a Louisville lineup dominated by fifth-year seniors and loaded with experience, Baylor volleyball looked more like a kiddie corps.
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