Down 17-12 in the fourth set, Baylor volleyball (7-3) stormed back and secured a four-set win over LSU Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center, 25-17, 23-25, 25-14, 26-24.
Although the Tigers (8-2) outblocked the Bears 14.0-5.0, senior Katie Staiger’s seventh double-double of the season (15 kills, 13 digs) propelled the Bears to their second-straight victory over LSU. Her 15 kills moved her into fourth all-time in career kills at Baylor (1,512), passing Tisha Schwartz and Heather Williams on the list.
For the second-straight match, junior Aniah Philo set a career-high in digs, notching 21 vs. the Tigers along with senior Jana Brusek.
The Bears jumped out to an early 8-4 lead and never let the Tigers get any closer than two points to take the early 1-0 advantage.
BU struggled to find some rhythm as the second set had nine ties and four lead changes. Baylor erased three set points but dropped the set on an attack error, 25-23.
Baylor and LSU wrestled in the third set, tying it nine times again. BU then went on a service run led by Jana Brusek and Yossiana Pressley to earn the 11-point victory.
Up 2-1, the Bears fell down 11-6 and 17-12 before BU fired back to tie it at 22-22 with a block from Hannah Lockin and Shelly Fanning. The Bears ended the match with a back row kill from Staiger.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Katie Staiger passed Tisha Schwartz (2000-03, 1,501 kills) and Heather Williams (1989-92, 1,506 kills) for the fourth-most kills in program history. She currently has 1,512 after compiling 15 against the Tigers.
• Staiger secured her seventh double-double of the season and 27th of her career against LSU (15 kills, 13 digs).
• Aniah Philo had a career-high 21 digs. It is the second-straight match she set a new career high in the back row.
• Baylor secured its second win of the season after trailing in blocks (14.0-5.0).
• Baylor is 4-0 when limiting its opponent below a .100 hitting efficiency. LSU hit .096.
STAT OF THE MATCH
1,512 – the amount of kills by Katie Staiger to move into fourth all-time in career kills at Baylor.
TOP QUOTE #1
"We’ve got to be better to be honest. We played like we had some jet lag out there at times. Not crisp. We got to get our pins hitting at a much higher, effective rate. Too many missed connections tonight. LSU is a really, really good team, and I thought we did an okay job defensively digging them. We've got to be a lot better lining our block up and slowing them down at the net, but I thought we limited them and what they were doing offensively, but other than Shelly, offensively we were a little anemic." -head coach Ryan McGuyre
TOP QUOTE #2
“We're going to play hard, and I think we still got to all be on the same page of what hard looks like. Hard starts with effort, but intensity is focused energy at the task at hand. They started playing with some energy and then we got to get them tactically focused on what they can do a little bit better, and then hopefully get to that point where you're doing some things that are pretty dynamic, but we never hit that stage of the flow for us tonight, maybe in the end. I thought Jana did a good job passing and kind of holding that down, so even though we were playing ugly, she did a good job distributing tonight.” -head coach Ryan McGuyre
WHAT’S NEXT
The Bears host Texas State as part of the Jason’s Deli Baylor Classic Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Ferrell Center. BU will face St. John’s and UTSA on Saturday.
