Sept. 1, 2009
Box Score
FORT WORTH, Texas - On the strength of a double-double from Katie Sanders and a team-leading 16 kills from Anna Breyfogle, the Bears awoke in the fourth set and came back to beat TCU 3-2 (28-26, 17-25, 22-25, 25-9, 15-13) in the University Recreation Center In Fort Worth, Texas.
The Bears opened with a first-set victory, 28-26, but dropped the next two sets before rebounding in a crushing fourth set. BU held TCU to just nine points in the fourth set with a quick attack on offense and solid defense. In the fifth set, Baylor erased a 7-4 lead to win 15-13.
"You go on the road and are playing a bunch of seniors in TCU that are motivated to play," head coach Jim Barnes said. "They really wanted to beat our team. I was glad to see us fight through and find a way to win. We didn't execute very well, but we fought through it."
Breyfogle led the way on the Baylor attacked with 16 kills on just 24 attempts with two errors for a .583 hitting percentage. Sanders, who had her second double-double of the season, and Christenson each had 13 kills, Sanders added 14 digs, along with Caitlyn Trice and Allison King. Setter Taylor Barnes had her first double-double of the season with 38 assists and 12 digs.
In the first set, the Bears and Horned Frogs didn't give each other any space to breath. The set featured 20 ties and nine lead changes before Baylor closed it out with a 28-26. Baylor took its biggest lead of the set at 13-10 on a kill by Breyfogle, but TCU closed with a 5-0 run and the lead was never more than two the rest of the way. Back-to-back kills by Qian Zhang and Sanders gave the Bears a 1-0 lead.
The second and third sets were mirror images of each other for Baylor, as TCU seemed to slow down the Bear attack. Irene Hester and Christy Hudson came alive to help TCU hit .286 and .296 in those two sets. They led the TCU attack on the day with 12 kills each, and did most of their damage in those two sets.
"They really smacked us in the face that third set," Barnes said. "They were yelling and screaming on their side. But you saw our team respond. We started to attack up the middle and on the right side. That was our plan going in and we focused on it in the fourth set."
In the fourth set, Baylor came out with a 7-0 run on kills from Christenson and Briana Tolbert, as well as back-to-back aces from Breyfogle. BU pushed the lead to 14-2 on a string of TCU errors, before getting three straight kills from Breyfogle, as well as kills by Tolbert and Barnes to close out the set.
The Bears quickly found themselves in the hole 7-4 in the fifth set, but scored for straight points with two kills by Sanders and two TCU errors. TCU battled back to take a lead 10-9, but Sanders made it 10-10 with a kill and Christenson pushed the lead to 12-10 and put the Bears in control. Christenson then closed out the match with the game final point on a kill.
The Bears will be back in action this weekend with three matches in the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic at the Ferrell Center. BU plays Central Florida at 7 p.m. on Friday, then takes on Texas-San Antonio and Purdue on Saturday.
