By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Ranked third at the end of the fall with a Big 12 runner-up finish, Baylor volleyball could have got a ticket to the NCAA tournament without playing a single match this spring.
            But, as coach Ryan McGuyre said, "there is no reward without the risk."
Ranked fifth in the latest AVCA coaches' poll that was released last Monday, the Bears (13-3) will play a 10-game spring schedule that includes home-and-home series with North Texas, Texas State and No. 2 Texas, back-to-back home games against Oklahoma and a road trip to play Houston and Rice the same weekend.
            "Getting to the tournament has always been hard, there are no guarantees," said McGuyre, who will resume full-squad workouts on Monday. "And then, once you get there, anything can happen. It takes great skill, it takes being healthy and then maybe a little fortune along the way. I believe we have great skill. I believe our girls know how to compete. Can we arrive there healthy and have some good fortune along the way. We'll see."
            While the spring schedule is unique for Baylor volleyball, this is a routine that McGuyre is familiar with after coaching men's teams for almost a decade.
            "It's about the same time frame. The championship was always the end of April, so it kind of feels like that," said McGuyre, who won six men's and three women's NAIA national championships at California Baptist. "I felt very rusty in the fall, and I I feel kind of rejuvenated this spring."
            With the possibility of the entire 48-team NCAA tournament being held at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb., which is already the scheduled site for the Final Four April 22-24, that could also mirror the NAIA tournaments that McGuyre has been a part of in the past. Selections for the tournament field will be announced April 4.
            McGuyre teared up during a Friday media session, "just bringing up these old feelings of positive experience. So, I'll reflect and dwell on those."
            Since the message in the fall was that "we're going to win a championship in April," McGuyre said, "our hope is that we're playing our very, very best volleyball at that time."
            "There are just so many distractions, so many challenges," he said, "when we train, when we can practice, who's cleared and who's not cleared. As coaches, we say it all the time, it's a day at a time. And my hope is that we hit April really healthy and that we've grown personally and very specifically. Each girl is working on parts of their game that we're trying to hit high-growth areas in."
            The reigning AVCA National Player of the Year, senior Yossiana Pressley ranks second in the Big 12 and 13^th nationally with 4.72 kills per set and hit at a .272 clip in the fall, adding 106 digs and 37 blocks.
            "I love how Yossi has grown in maturity," McGuyre said, "her desire to play for the Lord, to see the team play for the Lord. She has that competitive drive, nothing has diminished there, but she's been on the forefront of making sure these other girls are acclimated."
            Baylor added six players to the roster at midterm, but grad transfer Preslie Anderson from Cal is the only one eligible to compete this spring. The 6-2 middle blocker earned All-Pac 12 honors as a junior in 2019, when she led the conference with a .402 hitting percentage and tallied 211 kills with 98 blocks and 14 service aces.
            "Trying to get Preslie and the new ones adapted so that they're helping and enhancing the practice has been a welcomed challenge," McGuyre said. "Nothing good is easy. We're kind of going 100 mph with our returners while throwing the freshmen and the newbies in the fire, making sure we're not breaking them or beating them down too much, but helping them get acclimated at the same time."
            The Bears will begin their spring schedule hosting North Texas (1-2) at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Ferrell Center. North Texas won its only fall match, beating SFA, before getting swept by Wichita State on the opening weekend of the spring season.