By Tyler Alley
Sports Editor
Yet again, a Baylor team was unable to defeat Texas A&M.
Baylor volleyball (17-11, 4-8) fell to the Aggies 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 21-25, 13-25) Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
The teams’ defense decided the match, as Texas A&M had 82 digs to Baylor’s 67 and 11 blocks to Baylor’s five.
“It’s very disappointing to come out and play that way,” head coach Jim Barnes said. “We felt like we got everything going well in practice ready for this team. We come out and set one and play just exactly like we’ve been practicing and according to our gameplan.
The Bears came out swinging in the first set, outhitting Texas A&M .311 to .237.
The set was close all the way through, as the largest lead was Baylor’s four-point advantage.
Texas A&M grabbed a late lead at 20-21, but Baylor would go on a 5-0 run to capture the first set 25-21.
“We came out really strong, and that was the gameplan because we needed to take games 1 and 3,” junior setter Kate Harris said.
Senior middle blocker Briana Tolbert lead the Bears in the set with five kills, one block and a .444 hitting percentage, and junior middle blocker Torri Campbell had 5 kills and hit .571.
The Aggies reasserted themselves in the second set, going on two 4-0 runs and holding the Bears at bay to take the set 25-20.
Texas A&M’s Kelsey Black had five kills in the set to lead her team. Freshman utility Adri Nora lead the Bears with five kills in the set.
The third set was the closest, with nine ties and three lead changes. The set was tied at 18 when Baylor took their first timeout.
The Aggies pressed on to a 23-20 lead when Barnes took another timeout, but the Aggies could not be stopped and grabbed the set 25-21.
“Just a couple points that we could have turned over, could have been a different game,” Campbell said. “It’s definitely something we’re going to be working on in getting ready for OU.”
Texas A&M left no doubts in the final set. The set was tied at 6 when the Aggies went on a 13-2 run.
Baylor would grab five more points, but Texas A&M would close out the game with a 25-13 fourth set.
“They did a really good job on serving us,” Campbell said. “I feel like that got us out of our offense. That is their game. They played really solid in that last game.”
Campbell led the Bears with 12 kills and a .241 hitting percentage. Campbell and Nora had the most blocks with 1.5 each. Harris had 43 assists on the night and senior outside Allison King had 20 digs.
Baylor’s next game is against Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Saturday in Norman, Okla.
