Jordan Smith | Sports Writer
The Baylor volleyball team was able to take care of business Wednesday night against its Big 12 rival, Texas Tech University Red in a three-set shutout.
Throughout the first set, the Bears (14-1, 2-0) went back and forth on points with the Red Raiders. The ninth point of the set for Baylor was a turning point, as they would run away with the set. Although the Red Raiders tried to regroup, using both of their two timeouts came to no avail as the Bears took the first set, 25-17.
Head coach Ryan McGuyre said he was thrilled with the 818 fans in attendance who came out to support the team. This crowd tallied up to be one of the biggest crowds at the Ferrell Center this season.
“What a great atmosphere we had tonight. You know, something special happened here and our crowd was rocking,” McGuyre said.
McGuyre said he most impressed by the student section at the game.
“Tonight I gave them a hard time because I think I was like shooting 100% on the challenge calls and we lost one tonight. I looked to them and they were gung ho,” McGuyre said. “So I deferred to them. I really went over there to give them a hard time for that, but really thank them because what a fun group of guys to enjoy this atmosphere with.”
In the second set, although getting off to a slow start, the Bears soon found their rhythm again, and were able to tie it up at 12. Answering to the Bears momentum, the Red Raiders started to pull away, and appeared that the momentum and second set was going their way. Once again, Baylor came back to win the second set, 26-24. During this rally, the Bears compiled a total of 16 kills since, just four short of what Texas Tech had in kills the entire first two sets combined at 20.
Junior outside hitter Katie Staiger was in the zone against Texas Tech, grabbing 19 total kills throughout the entire match. The Red Raiders as a team had a total of 33 kills, but Staiger gave the credit for her success to her teams defensive performance.
“Our defense was digging awesome. Morgan was setting the ball really well. So yeah just kind of finding the holes,” Staiger said. “I was able to put a lot of balls down, but I think a lot of that also comes down from our middles being up every time. We had our right sides putting balls away. So Tech really had to worry about all three hitters.”
The Bears started off strong in the third as they got off to an early lead. A lead that the Bears would never give up. In fact, the closest it got was a 5-5 tie. The Bears had 17 kills in the set and with that secured the victory with a final set score, 25-19 to extend their win streak to 10.
Their next matchup will be at 1 p.m. Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kan.
