Jordan Smith | Sports Writer
Baylor volleyball junior outside hitter Katie Staiger not only has climbed her way to the top of the national kills-per-set stat list, but also has received the Big 12 Player of the Week Award after her performance in the Seminole Tournament held at Florida State University this past weekend.
Staiger was able to accumulate 66 kills over the span of 11 sets she played in over the weekend, totaling an average of six kills per set. During the contest against Florida State University alone, Staiger was able to accumulate 28 kills. In that match, she also set the second-highest attack percentage on the entire team at .262.
During a press conference last week, Staiger said Baylor needed to work on something big in order to do well at the Seminole tournament they participated in this past weekend. Her words became reality when the the Bears closed out the tournament with two sweeps against Little Rock and Florida A&M.
“I think just executing for us. I think the positive I would take for us just really is that we can beat teams that are playing at a high level if we are all meshing, all playing together well,” Staiger said.
Head coach Ryan McGuyre said he learned a lot from their trip to California.
“You know, the California trip, we learned quite a bit. One, we know there’s areas that were a bit focused on that we haven’t reached some of these benchmarks yet: serving, serves received, side out,” McGuyre said. “We recognize rotations that we’ve just got to make better decisions in, and I thought we did that in the third match.”
The Bears will be back on the road as they head to Baton Rouge to take on Louisiana State University at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
