Constance Atton I Lariat Photographer
Sports Writer
The Bears’ struggles continued with a straight set loss to in-state rival Texas Christian University on Wednesday night. The Bears lost the sets 25-23, 25-21, and 25-21. The home confines of the Ferrell Center have not been friendly for Baylor volleyball so far in Big 12 conference play.
Baylor took a deficit to begin every set, and struggled to recover.
In the first set, the Bears fell behind 1-4 before eventually falling to 7-12. Baylor fought hard in the middle to get back to 22-23, but eventually gave in.
The second set was not much better as Baylor fell into a dreadful 1-7 hole to begin the set. The Bears went on a run to cut the lead to 6-9, but fell 15-20 and never recovered.
In the third set, TCU took a 7-4 lead that Baylor never overcame.
“We just came out flat every single set,” sophomore outside hitter Thea Munch-Soegaard said. “That kind of predicts what will happen in the set. We started slow, fought back in the middle but fell apart at the end. I think we were a little overconfident. This just proves we can’t take a day off. We can’t take a point off.”
Senior outside hitter Zoe Adom led Baylor offensively with 15 kills, four digs and a block with a .294 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Laura Jones also contributed with nine kills on a .300 hitting percentage.
Sophomore setter Amy Rosenbaum had 38 assists and two kills in the three-set match. Sophomore libero Mackenzie Mayo finished with 11 digs to be the only Bear in double-digit digs. Munch-Soegaard finished with eight kills and six digs, but also had five service and receiving errors.
Baylor finished with 33 errors, including seven serving errors and six receiving errors. That’s the second highest total that Baylor has had in a three set match behind only a loss to Colorado on Sept. 14.
The Bears hit a relatively high .231 for the match, but the offense was not enough to overcome the lack of defense and consistency for Baylor against a 13-7 TCU team.
“It was disappointing,” Mayo said. “We didn’t really show up today. I think we came in underprepared. We didn’t reciprocate the fire TCU brought.”
Baylor allowed TCU to hit over its .241 hitting average in every set. The Horned Frogs hit .258 in the first set, .290 in the second set and .273 in the third set to go .274 for the match. TCU managed to get 6.0 blocks, but none of them were in the final set.
“Our whole focus of practice was serving tough and aggressive, but we never got them in trouble,” head coach Jim Barnes said. “We never got them out of their offense, so we were never able to turn the momentum.”
Baylor volleyball will look to rebound at 1 p.m. against Oklahoma on Saturday at the Ferrell Center.
