Matthew McCarroll | Lariat Photographer
By Laurean Love
Reporter
Baylor volleyball was not able to gain a victory against No. 10 Texas Wednesday night, falling 25-16, 16-25, 25-15, 25-19.
“We are a team that is moving forward. We are not a team that has backed off and [is] moving down,” head coach Jim Barnes said. “We are getting better every day and we can learn from those experiences.”
Baylor (15-8, 3-5) recorded 48 kills for the evening, hitting at .117 with 53 digs, six blocks and three service aces.
Senior middle blocker Briana Tolbert had the most kills for the evening with 18. Tolbert had more kills than any Texas player; Texas’ Haley Eckerman led her team with 15.
“Tonight our teamwork definitely pulled us through; we needed it the entire game”, Tolbert said, “The competitiveness and determination that we had tonight just to play our game and just to play our hardest was our goal tonight.”
Junior middle blocker Tori Campbell had 10 kills, which tied her career best, while senior outside hitter Qian Zhang had nine kills and junior right side Alyssa Dibbern had seven.
Sophomore Zoe Adom also added three kills and junior setter Kate Harris had one kill.
“We came in here fighting. We knew we were the underdogs, but that didn’t stop us,” Campbell said. “I am proud of the way the girls played tonight, proud of how everyone just kept working no matter what the circumstance was.”
The Bears could not gain momentum in the first set and lost 25-16. However, they had 12 kills and only eight errors.
In the second set Baylor had 11 kills and five errors at .207 for a 25-16 win.
The Bears never had a big scoring run, instead slowly building a lead to eventually win the set 25-16.
Tolbert had two kills and five blocks in the second set.
“The teamwork tonight was phenomenal, and we kept pushing, kept fighting so [we’re] definitely just growing off of that,” Campbell said. “We talked about it and we just have so much more to do, so much growing to do. We are just going to take this and grow from it.”
Baylor also had 11 kills in the third set and only eight errors, but couldn’t hold off Texas, who took the set, 25-15.
In the final and fourth set, Baylor had 14 kills and nine errors. It was not able to gain a victory to force a fifth set and instead fell 25-19.
Baylor next takes on Texas Tech at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday in Lubbock.
