By Shehan Jeyarajah
Sports Writer
Baylor volleyball fell in straight sets to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday at the Ferrell Center. The Bears hit .010 for the match and had 35 total errors in the three set match. Baylor lost the sets 25-13, 25-13, 25-19. With the loss, Baylor fell to 9-13 on the season and 1-5 in Big 12 play, while the Sooners improved to 16-4 and 4-2 in the Big 12.
The trouble for Baylor started right from the first set. The Bears took an early 5-4 lead, but would subsequently give up a massive 17-4 run to fall behind to Oklahoma 21-9, a lead that they could not come close to overcoming. Baylor hit .088 for the set with only eight total kills. No player had more than two kills.
The second set perhaps went worse than the first. The Bears finished with six kills on a -.115 hitting percentage. After keeping things close early 7-7, Oklahoma once again went on a massive run, this time 16-4. The Sooners would go on to win the set 25-13 once again.
Baylor played better in the third set, but still gave up a huge run. The Bears came out of the gate quick and jumped to a 5-2 lead. The Sooners responded with a 17-5 run to take a dominant 10-19 lead. The Bears would fight back and pull the set to within five, but would fall short.
Sophomore setter Amy Rosenbaum finished with 17 assists for 5.7 assists per set in the match. This was well below her season average of 10.17 assists per set.
Sophomore middle hitter Adrien Richburg led Baylor with five kills on a .167 hitting percentage. Other than Rosenbaum and Richburg, no other player finished with a hitting percentage over .100.
“At first we couldn’t get a pass,” Richburg said. “Once we got a pass, we couldn’t get a hit. There were different parts of us breaking down. We would get one thing right. We would get another thing wrong. We would come out strong. We just really need to work on being consistent and steady and not let one point take us out of our game.”
Senior middle blocker Sallie McLaurin led Oklahoma with 13 kills and two blocks on a .600 hitting percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Kierra Holst contributed with eight kills and an ace. Sophomore defensive specialist Taylor Miggliazzo led Oklahoma with 14 digs.
Oklahoma dominated Baylor in every aspect of the game. The Sooners outhit Baylor .302 to .010, out-dug Baylor 45-36, out-killed Baylor 40-24, out-blocked Baylor 7.0-3.0, out-assisted Baylor 34-21 and outscored Baylor 53.0-28.0.
Since rally scoring was implemented in 2001, Baylor has never failed to reach 20 points in at least one set during a match. This season, the Bears have failed to do so three times.
“As an athlete, sometimes you want to look at the big picture,” Rosenbaum said. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves, we have to focus on each ball. The circumstances are what they are, but you’re around such a great group of girls, you know you’re going to bounce back. ”
The Bears started conference play 1-5 last season too, but turned it around to finish with a record of 7-9.
“Sometimes it’s not easy to stay positive, but the chemistry we have helps us out a lot,” Richburg said. “We need to work on bringing that chemistry to the floor.”
Baylor will play its next match at 7 p.m. on Wednesday against Kansas State.
