No. 24 Baylor volleyball heads into a familiar test Thursday night, opening its two-match Sunflower State trip at No. 15 Kansas in Lawrence.
First serve at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN+, and the Bears will be trying to answer a 3-2 loss to the Jayhawks in Waco 10 days ago.
Kansas has now taken four straight in the series, and that latest meeting stung for Baylor after it jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Jayhawks rallied to win the final three sets. It marked only the fifth time in the McGuyre era that the Bears lost after winning the first two sets.
Senior Victoria Davis said the quick rematch gives Baylor a chance to reset and respond.
"Yeah, I would say it's an advantage since we just saw them recently," she said. "They're going to be pretty close to the team we played last time.
From a scouting perspective, being able to watch their team and prepare slightly differently than we did last time will be good for us. We're motivated.
Honestly, in that locker room, we want to go back out against them. The better team wins the second time, so we want to be able to prove that on Thursday."
The matchup also puts two of the most successful Big 12 programs on the same floor. Since 2019, Baylor owns the conference’s best record at 95-33, a .742 winning percentage. Kansas is next in that span at .620.
Baylor’s attack continues to run through Ksenia Rakhmanchik, who leads the Big 12 in both kills per set at 4.86 and points per set at 5.29. She also ranks sixth nationally in kills per set and picked up her 700th career kill against TCU.
In that match, she posted 23 kills and 14 digs on a season-high 66 attacks. She has now put together four straight matches with at least 20 kills, including 25 against Kansas last month, and has reached double figures in kills in 29 consecutive matches.
Rakhmanchik has led Baylor in kills, attacks and points in 19 of 20 matches this season.
Isabela Haggard, a three-time Big 12 Setter of the Week this year, sits third in the league with 9.81 assists per set and is three blocks away from 100 for her career. Davis also hit a milestone last week by moving past 400 kills.
She added a team-high seven blocks against TCU and is averaging 1.12 blocks per set. Freshman Jules Hernandez is one dig from 100, and Nadiya Johnson needs 15 kills to reach 200 in her career.
Baylor remained No. 24 in the AVCA poll for a third straight week and has been ranked in 130 of the last 132 polls. The Bears are 13-7 overall and 5-5 in Big 12 play.
After Thursday’s match, Baylor stays in Kansas to face Kansas State on Sunday, Nov. 8, in Manhattan before returning home to host No. 9 BYU on Nov. 12.
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