Nov. 21, 2009
Box Score
WACO, Texas - In a Senior Night match that started 90 minutes late due to a last-minute venue switch to Baylor's Student Life Center, second-ranked Texas swept No. 24 Baylor 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-23) on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 1,057. A wet spot on the floor forced officials to move the match from the Ferrell Center across campus to the SLC.
Baylor senior Katie Sanders had a match-high 16 kills and hit .433 (16-3-30), but Baylor hit just .170 (39-21-106) compared to Texas' .340 (45-9-106). All-Americans Destinee Hooker and Ashley Engle led the Longhorns with 14 and 10 kills. BU's Ashlie Christenson was the only other player in double figures with 10 kills. Baylor senior Taylor Barnes had a match-high 30 assists in her final home match.
"It's a great team we played, and we played hard," head coach Jim Barnes said. "We didn't execute real well offensively, but our outsides really stepped up and played well. The whole thing is coming out here and playing hard, and we did that. We stayed with them tight, and had our opportunities in game three. If we play that way and execute a little better on the offensive end, then we can beat most teams we face."
On defense, the Longhorns out-blocked Baylor 10.0 to 4.0, getting six block assists from Jennifer Doris and five from Juliann Faucette. Baylor senior Anna Breyfogle had two blocks (1s, 1a), to go along with two block assists by freshman Torri Campbell. BU's Allison King led all players with 17 digs, while Texas libero Heather Kisner had 10 to lead UT.
"We owe everything to those three seniors as far as coming in here and turning this into a top-50 team, then a top-30 team, and now a top-25 team. They have been part of those steps the entire way and they are great people. They are how you start building a program."
In the first set, Sanders got her final home match rolling to start with the game's opening kill. Back-to-back kills by Barnes, followed by a Christenson kill tied the score at 7-7. After a 3-0 UT run, Baylor roared back with three of their own on the strength of a Barnes kill and service ace. The Longhorns went on a 5-0 run to make it 18-13 with a kill by Hooker and Faucette. The Bears got as close as 18-16 with kills by Christenson, Sanders and Graham, but UT scored seven of the next nine points to close out 25-18.
Texas got out to a 7-3 lead in the second set, but a solo block by Breyfogle made it 7-5, then three in a row by the Bears closed the score to 10-9. During the run, Sanders ripped off two kills in a row. Texas pushed the lead to 19-12, and Baylor got as close as 19-15 with kills by Sanders and Christenson. From that point, Texas forced three straight Baylor errors to end the set with another 25-18 win.
In the third set, the teams weren't separated by two points at any score, resulting in 15 ties and four lead changes. Baylor took a 4-3 lead with back-to-back kills. The Bears latest lead was 11-10 after a Sanders kill, but BU didn't let Texas get out of reach. Sanders tied it at 18-18 with kill, then closed it to 23-22 with another kill. UT's Hooker gave BU hope with a hitting error to make it 24-23, but finished it off with the match-point kill.
With the win, Texas earned at least a share of its third consecutive Big 12 title, and fourth overall.
Baylor (21-9, 10-9) will play its regular season finale at Missouri on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The match is set for 6:30 p.m. and will be audio-streamed live on www.BaylorBears.com.
