Baylor volleyball (21-10, 9-6 Big 12) saw a 2-1 lead slip away, falling to the Iowa State Cyclones (17-10, 9-6 Big 12), 25-27, 25-14, 25-22, 11-25, 9-15, on Wednesday evening in the Ferrell Center.
The BU offense was paced by Katie Staiger, with the redshirt junior logging 32 kills to break the Baylor record for single-season kills.
With her 11th kill in the match, Staiger topped Elisha Polk’s program record for kills in a season (620, 1998), now holding the top spot with 642 kills and counting this year.
In set one, the Bears let a late lead at 23-21 slip away, with the Cyclones closing out the frame on a 6-2 run to steal the 1-0 match lead.
In the second, BU bounced back in a big way, tying the match at 1-1 with a 25-14 win, holding ISU to a .081 hitting clip while the Bears hit .387.
In the third, Baylor took a 25-22 set win, taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Cyclones took control in the fourth and fifth, hitting .583 and .588 to take the final two sets and the match.
HIGHLIGHTS
Katie Staiger (32 kills) set a new season and career-high in kills, posting the fourth-highest match kill total in program history.
Staiger (642) passed Stevie Nicholas (613, 2000) and Elisha Polk (613, 1997 and 620, 1998) to set a new Baylor record for the most kills in a single-season.
Nicole Thomas (7 blocks) set a new season and career-high in blocks.
QUOTE OF THE MATCH
“Very frustrating loss. It was frustrating for me, personally, because the team didn’t reflect some of the core values from training that have been important to us all year. It’s ultimately on me in making sure they’re doing that, inspiring them to do that, motivating them to do that. Sometimes you could just see looks on faces where we weren’t ready to battle. We’ve only been good this year because we showed up ready to battle, and know the outcome, we can’t control. Tonight we didn’t battle like we know how to and we were disappointed with the outcome.” – Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre
STAT OF THE DAY
15-2 – Baylor’s record in matches where BU has led 2-1 under Coach McGuyre, falling to 8-1 this season and 3-1 in Big 12 play.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor closes the regular season, hosting Kansas for Senior Night on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 1 p.m. in the Ferrell Center.
