Baylor Volleyball 2026: Season Outlook & Program Overview
Original analysis of the Baylor Bears program, coaching staff, and 2026 outlook.
2026 Season Outlook
Ryan McGuyre's twelfth Baylor team is younger than the ones that made deep runs earlier this decade. Seven freshmen are on the roster and the setter position is genuinely open - Harley Greek is the senior, but Marquette transfer Isabela Haggard and freshman Abby Schoene both arrived with reason to compete for reps. The clearest returning strength is on the pins. Ksenia Rakhmanchik was named Preseason All-Big 12 in August, unusual recognition for a sophomore and a signal of how much the offense is expected to run through her. Add Texas State transfer MJ McCurdy and 6-5 opposite Grace Carroll, and Baylor has real height and real swings on the outside. The block should be a strength too, with Anastasiia Nikolnikova and Victoria Davis anchoring the middle and 6-4 freshman Lacy Tinnell behind them. The honest read: the Big 12 is wide open, and Baylor's non-conference slate is hard enough that a .500 record through September would not be alarming. A top-four league finish and an at-large NCAA bid is the reasonable target; the ceiling depends almost entirely on whether the setter position settles by October.
Program History & Tradition
Baylor volleyball started in 1978 and spent most of its first three decades outside the national conversation. That changed under Ryan McGuyre. The Bears have made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, ten of them consecutively since 2016. The peak was 2019: a 15-1 Big 12 title, a regional final win, and the program's only Final Four. Regional semifinal appearances in 2009, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 fill in the rest of the modern record. Baylor officially dropped the Lady Bears nickname before the 2021-22 school year. Home matches are at the Ferrell Center in Waco.
Head Coach Spotlight
Ryan McGuyre is in his twelfth season, hired in 2015. He took a program with one NCAA appearance in the previous four years and turned it into an annual tournament team, and his 2019 group won the Big 12 at 15-1 and reached the Final Four - still the deepest run in program history. Jared Goldberg arrived in June 2026 as associate head coach, brought in to work with the offense during a season when the setter position is the biggest open question on the roster. Jorge Penate, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, is the through-line on the Texas recruiting pipeline that fills most of this roster.
What to Watch in 2026
The trip to Nebraska on September 11 is the match that shapes Baylor's NCAA seeding conversation in December - the Devaney Center is the loudest building in college volleyball, and Baylor gets it as part of a three-match weekend in Lincoln. Florida coming to Waco on September 5 is a genuine coup for the non-conference schedule. BYU visits on November 12, and the TCU home-and-home runs October 18 in Fort Worth and October 30 in Waco, two matches inside 13 days that are as close as this league gets to a rivalry series. Baylor closes its home slate with Iowa State on November 20 and Arizona State on the same weekend. Note that the Big 12 does not hold a volleyball tournament - the regular-season standings decide the title.
