Baylor volleyball (19-8, 7-4 Big 12) fell short in a road contest with the No. 5 Texas Longhorns (19-3, 11-1 Big 12), 23-25, 24-26, 16-25, Wednesday evening at the Gregory Gymnasium.
The Bears failed to pick up the program’s first-ever win in Austin, despite strong showings in each of the first two sets against the fifth-ranked Longhorns.
In set one, the team’s traded points down the stretch, with a Katie Staiger kill cutting the lead to one at 24-23. The Longhorns squeaked out of the first frame with a 25-23 victory, picking up a kill on the second set point.
In the second, the Bears jumped out to an early lead, holding a three point lead at 10-7. With the gap narrowed, BU took a late lead at 23-22. UT again managed to avoid the BU surge, closing the set out on a 4-1 run to take the 2-0 match lead.
In the final set, Texas got off to a hot start and didn’t let up, with a late push from the Baylor squad stopped by a 5-1 UT run, clinching the set and match with a comfortable 25-16 set win.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Katie Staiger (19 kills, 11 digs) and Aniah Philo (10 kills, 17 digs) repeated double-double efforts, notching their 15th and eighth of the season, respectively.
• Staiger’s 543 kills this year are the most in a single-season among Big 12 hitters since 2006 (Sarah Pavan, Nebraska, 586) and the most by a Baylor hitter since 2003 (Tisha Schwartz, 554).
QUOTE OF THE MATCH
“We were battling. We were in both of those first sets, going back and forth all the way through. I was really pushing them to be aggressive throughout our serves, and I think a couple of the girls might’ve gone for it a little too much. We gave up some of those errors. We worked on some things defensively that I thought were good. Texas does a great job and the outside hitters move it really well. We were just a step or two behind, just a couple of times, and that really cost us.” –Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre
STAT OF THE DAY
.181 – the hitting percentage allowed by the Baylor defense through the first two sets, before allowing a .394 hitting mark in the third and final set.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor returns to the Ferrell Center on Saturday, Nov. 12, hosting the West Virginia Mountaineers at 1 p.m. in Waco.
