By Krista Pirtle
Sports writer
The Baylor Bears volleyball team (4-1) powered their way through West Virginia University (1-4) 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-20.) Tuesday night.
“We were really focused on reaching some milestones on our game,” Baylor head coach Jim Barnes said. “We were wanting to be up fifteen or more kills every set and we did that tonight.”
Baylor’s front totaled 52 kills on the evening led by No. 3 sophomore outside hitter Zoe Adom with 13 at .211, No. 16 freshman utility Adri Nora with 12 at .440 and No. 7 junior middle blocker Torri Campbell with 11 at .409.
“We really wanted to get more aggressive attacking the ball,” Barnes said. “When they went to our middles, our lefts were open one-on-one so Zoe [Adom] and Adri [Nora] got a lot of kills.”
With their 74 digs, Baylor allowed only 28 kills from WVU. No. 8 senior libero Allison King led the way with 24 followed by No. 20 senior outside hitter Qian Zhang with 13.
Even though the total number of blocks for the Bears totaled four, there was more action at the net than the statistics will point to.
“Our defense definitely outhustled them, and I thought that we had more energy and momentum than them,” Nora said. “In the end we came through. Our blockers are crazy. Bri [Tolbert] and Torri [Campbell] are crazy. We definitely had a solid four hands up there tonight.”
The opening set featured a dominating offensive performance as Baylor recorded 18 kills at .444.
West Virginia couldn’t get things rolling as they hit .078 and recorded half the kills the Bears did.
The second match saw athletes running all over the place, hustling for the ball.
Baylor had 19 kills this time but hit at .222 due to seven errors.
West Virginia still couldn’t seem to find their groove as they were held to only six kills at .089.
The final set WVU would not relinquish easily as the two teams battled back and forth with eight ties and four lead changes, but their resiliency could not overthrow the Bears as they took the set to win the match.
Baylor appeared to let off the steam a little bit recording 15 kills at .250.
West Virginia finally found some offense as they had 13 kills at .154 for the final set.
“We battled, I thought, harder,” Barnes said. “There’s times when we were good, but we were never in really good sync tonight. That was the key to not give them easy points. We’re not there yet, but I saw good signs as far as moving in that direction.”
Baylor takes the floor again this weekend in Beaumont, Texas, for the MCM Elegante Invitational.
The Bears first game will be against UTEP Sept. 9, at 4pm.
