HONOLULU, Hawaii - No. 21 Baylor opened its trip to the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic with a grind-it-out win, outlasting Hawai'i in five sets Saturday night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Bears walked away with a 3-2 victory after leaning hard on their work at the net. Baylor finished with 20 team blocks in front of 5,952 fans, and that pressure was the difference in a match that swung back and forth all night. Victoria Davis delivered a career-high 10 blocks, while freshman Mya Hemmer added seven, including three straight blocks in the fifth set that helped Baylor wrest control of the finale.
Baylor came out sharp in the first set, stacking up seven team blocks and spreading the offense around in a 25-17 win. Ksenia Rakhmanchik had six kills in the frame, and she joined Davis and Nadiya Johnson in multiple blocks as Hawai'i was held to a .000 hitting percentage.
The momentum flipped quickly in the second. Baylor still jumped ahead 3-0, but Hawai'i answered with a 4-0 run and then blew the set open with a 9-0 burst after Lacy Tinnell picked up her career-first kill to trim the deficit to 13-11. That surge carried the Wahine to a 25-14 win and evened the match.
Set three turned into another battle at the net. Baylor built a 13-9 lead and pushed it to 15-10 behind a pair of Hemmer kills and a block with Isabela Haggard. Hawai'i clawed all the way back to 22-22, but three straight attack errors by the Wahine handed the Bears a 25-22 set and a 2-1 lead.
Hawai'i refused to go away in the fourth. The Wahine opened up an 8-4 edge and held it for much of the set before Baylor kept chipping away.
The Bears got within one at 13-12 and again at 17-16, then trimmed it to 23-22 and 24-23 after a Hawai'i attack error. That was as close as they got, though, as Hawai'i closed it out 25-23 to force a fifth set.
In the decider, Baylor’s front line took over. Hawai'i started with a 2-0 lead, but Davis and Johnson answered with a block to get Baylor moving.
Hemmer followed with a block, a kill and another block as the Bears turned a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 lead. Hemmer kept piling up stops at the net, teaming with Rakhmanchik for a block, then with Haggard for another, before adding a solo rejection to help Baylor surge to an 11-5 advantage.
Davis added a kill to get the Bears to match point, and Johnson finished it off with the final kill in a 15-9 fifth-set win.
Rakhmanchik finished with a team-high 14 kills, extending her streak of double-figure kills to 11 matches. Haggard added 34 assists and 12 digs for her second double-double of the season and the 13th of her career, while also matching a career high with five total blocks.
The win marked Baylor’s first in Honolulu and moved the Bears to 4-6 in the all-time series. It also pushed Baylor to 2-0 for the second time in the last three seasons and the third time in the McGuyre Era. Ryan McGuyre is now 39-27 in five-set matches at Baylor, and the Bears are 201-24 under him when winning the first set.
Baylor’s 20 blocks were its most since it had 20 against San Diego on Sept. 2, 2022. Davis’ 10 blocks were the most by a Baylor player since Gabbi Essix had 10 at Texas Tech last season, and they gave Davis 202 for her career.
The Bears will close out the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. CT against Georgia Southern. The match will not be streamed, but live stats are available all season at BaylorBears.com/Stats.
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