Matthew McCarroll | Lariat Photographer
By Laurean Love
Reporter
Despite their efforts, the Lady Bears’ volleyball team could not keep No. 25 Oklahoma from their first Big 12 win; however Baylor gave them a run for their money with a 3-1 match (25-22, 24-26, 26-24, 25-18.)
Baylor dedicated their match to 10-year-old cancer survivor Molly Martinsen, whose mother, Jennifer (Putty) Martinsen played volleyball at Baylor from 1985-87.
“We are doing a pre-camp before one of our games to help support her and with medical bills so we have definitely taken her under our wing,” Torri Campbell said.
Baylor recorded 62 kills for the evening, hitting at .190 with 77 digs, seven blocks and three service aces with nine errors.
The Sooners had 52 kills hitting at .195 with 79 digs, 14 blocks and five service aces with three errors.
“In set 3, we had 17 kills and four errors, which is incredible offense,” head coach Jim Barnes said, “You really have to mess up and make a lot of unforced errors to not win with an offense that good”.
“We out-killed them by 10, I don’t know how many teams have ever lost getting 10 more kills. The reason it happened for us was because there was always one person not doing their job, so the chain link would come lose because you have to have all six doing their job”
Junior middle blocker Torri Campbell had the most kills, 15, for the evening. Campbell also had more than Oklahoma’s Suzy Boulavsky with only 13 kills.
“We were really excited to play OU in the first conference game and we had excitement through the whole game but at the very, very end it just trailed off,” Campbell said.
Freshman utility Adri Nora came in right behind Campbell for the most kills with 14 kills for the evening. Freshman right-side hitter Alyssa Dibbern followed with 10 kills.
Baylor beat Oklahoma’s kills in every set (13-16, 13-17, 12-15) except the first set in which they tied with 14 kills.
Eight errors by Baylor fueled the Sooners to coast to a win for the first set.
Baylor’s 16 kills and only seven errors at .214 gave them a victory in the second set for a 24-26 score.
Although the Bears had 17 kills and only four errors they could not ride that momentum in the third set for a victory.
In the final set, Baylor had a total of 15 kills and with 10 errors at .128.
The Lady Bears are now 11-4 for the season and 0-1 for the Big 12.
Baylor is on the road this weekend, against Kansas State at 7 p.m. on Saturday, followed by a match against the Aggies next week.
