Baylor
Iowa State
VB Falls in Five to Iowa State
11/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
By Larry Little
Baylor Bear Foundation
With 21 wins, including a plus-.500 record in Big 12 Conference play, an RPI in the low 40s and four wins against RPI top-50 teams, Baylor may be in a good shape to earn its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2011.
However, if Baylor's name is not called in Sunday's selection show (8 p.m. CT, ESPNU), the Bears likely can point to a pair of five-set losses in an eight-day span in November as the pin that burst their bubble. One week after dropping a tooth-and-nail five-setter at TCU, the Bears (21-10, 9-6) squandered a two-sets-to-one lead at the Ferrell Center against Iowa State (17-10, 9-6). The Cyclones, who have won seven of eight since falling to Baylor in Ames five weeks ago, steamrolled the Bears 25-11 in set four and 15-9 in the final stanza.
"It was a very frustrating loss, for me personally," head coach Ryan McGuyre said. "The team tonight did not reflect some of the core values and training principles that have been important to us all year. Ultimately, that's a reflection of the head coach in making sure they're doing that, inspiring them to do that, motivating them to do that."
Baylor fell behind by as many as six points on three occasions in the first set, but rallied to snag a 23-21 lead. After the Cyclones recaptured the lead with three straight points, the Bears staved off two set points before an attack error gave Iowa State the 27-25 victory.
The second set was all Baylor. The Bears allowed consecutive points only three times en route to a 25-14 win. Baylor hit .310 (14 kills, two errors, 31 attempts) in the second set while holding ISU to a .081 mark (10-7-37).
Baylor pulled away late in a back-and-forth third set, using a 6-1 run to build a 24-20 lead. Iowa State fought off a couple set points before Nicole Thomas ended the set with a kill.
But, that is where the match turned. Iowa State hit .200 (37-17-100) through the first three sets but tallied 27 kills against only three errors in 41 swings (.585 attack percentage) the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Bears had 44 kills over the first three games but managed only 16 kills over the final two sets.
Katie Staiger terrorized Iowa State for the first three sets with kill totals of seven, nine and nine, respectively, against only four errors. However, the Cyclones limited her to seven kills against three errors in sets four and five.
Even before the final two sets, Baylor struggled in the serve receive game all night. Iowa State tallied nine service aces, the most against the Bears this season.
"We weren't ready to battle," McGuyre said. "We've only been good this year because we've shown up ready to battle. Tonight, we didn't battle the way we know how to, and we're disappointed in the outcome."
Staiger finished with 32 kills, tied for the seventh-best match total in program history and the most by a Baylor player since 2001 when Stevie Nicholas tied Elisha Polk's school record of 36 in a five-set match at Kansas. Along the way, Staiger eclipsed Polk's single-season Baylor record for kills and now has 642 -- 58 shy of the Big 12 record (700) established by Texas A&M's Laura Jones in 2004.
Aniah Philo had 13 kills, and Camryn Freiberg added nine. Thomas led the Bears with seven blocks. Baylor concludes the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m., hosting No. 4 Kansas (25-2, 14-1). The Jayhawks, who have won 13 straight, would clinch the Big 12 title with a win, ending Texas' five-year reign.
WACO, Texas - Baylor volleyball (21-10, 9-6 Big 12) saw a 2-1 lead slip away, falling to the Iowa State Cyclones (17-10, 9-6 Big 12), 25-27, 25-14, 25-22, 11-25, 9-15, on Wednesday evening in the Ferrell Center.
The BU offense was paced by Katie Staiger, with the redshirt junior logging 32 kills to break the Baylor record for single-season kills.
With her 11th kill in the match, Staiger topped Elisha Polk's program record for kills in a season (620, 1998), now holding the top spot with 642 kills and counting this year.
In set one, the Bears let a late lead at 23-21 slip away, with the Cyclones closing out the frame on a 6-2 run to steal the 1-0 match lead.
In the second, BU bounced back in a big way, tying the match at 1-1 with a 25-14 win, holding ISU to a .081 hitting clip while the Bears hit .387.
In the third, Baylor took a 25-22 set win, taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Cyclones took control in the fourth and fifth, hitting .583 and .588 to take the final two sets and the match.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Katie Staiger (32 kills) set a new season and career-high in kills, posting the fourth-highest match kill total in program history.
- Staiger (642) passed Stevie Nicholas (613, 2000) and Elisha Polk (613, 1997 and 620, 1998) to set a new Baylor record for the most kills in a single-season.
- Nicole Thomas (7 blocks) set a new season and career-high in blocks.
QUOTE OF THE MATCH
"Very frustrating loss. It was frustrating for me, personally, because the team didn't reflect some of the core values from training that have been important to us all year. It's ultimately on me in making sure they're doing that, inspiring them to do that, motivating them to do that. Sometimes you could just see looks on faces where we weren't ready to battle. We've only been good this year because we showed up ready to battle, and know the outcome, we can't control. Tonight we didn't battle like we know how to and we were disappointed with the outcome." - Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre
STAT OF THE DAY
15-2 - Baylor's record in matches where BU has led 2-1 under Coach McGuyre, falling to 8-1 this season and 3-1 in Big 12 play.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor closes the regular season, hosting Kansas for Senior Night on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 1 p.m. in the Ferrell Center.
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