Stephen F. Austin
Baylor
SFA Hangs Tough with Baylor in 3-1 Home Setback
9/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Baylor 3, Stephen F. Austin 1 | 25-23, 25-15, 21-25, 25-20 | Box Score
Records: Baylor • 12-4 | Stephen F. Austin • 8-6
Up next: Sam Houston State (6-8, 0-1 Southland) | Saturday, Sept. 24 | 1:00 p.m.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
That was the message Stephen F. Austin head volleyball coach had for the Ladyjacks after SFA battled valiantly before dropping a 3-1 non-conference showdown with Baylor on Wednesday evening. It was the first time the Bears paid a visit to Shelton Gym since 1994, and SFA did everything in its power to try and push things to a fifth set.
Unfortunately, the Bears closed out the match with a 15-5 run in the fourth to snap the Ladyjacks’ three-match losing streak and drop their record to 8-6. Wednesday night’s setback snapped a three-match SFA winning streak against Baylor at Shelton Gym and will go down as the first home loss of the 2016 campaign for SFA.
“Sometimes when you play a team like that, you think you have to be a little better than what you normally are and that’s something we fell victim to tonight,” Humphreys said. “I think it came down to us getting a little flustered at times and we just have to learn to take a deep breath and understand that sometimes you’re going to take a great swing and the ball is going to get dug.”
Abby McIntyre finished with 12 kills and was one of three Ladyjacks who posted 10 or more terminations, but Baylor finished off many of the longer rallies in the tilt and made use of a match-best 24 kills from Katie Staiger to exit Nacogdoches with its eighth-straight win.
Peyton Redmond and Justice Walker each found pay dirt on 10 kills while Redmond finished off her second double-double of the season by scooping up 13 digs. Baylor wrapped up the match with an 81-62 advantage in the digs department as well as a .255-.157 upper hand in attack percentage.
“Staiger is a kid that you have to keep from getting into her rhythm, but she was able to find it relatively early on in the match,” Humphreys continued. “That just made her very difficult to stop.”
SFA stayed neck-and-neck with the Bears throughout the first set, tying matters at 17 points apiece, but consecutive kills from Staiger and Aniah Philo pushed the visitors up 19-17 and represented an advantage that the Ladyjacks were unable to overcome.
Walker hammered down a powerful kill that trimmed SFA’s deficit to 24-23, but a ball handling error by Ann Hollas signified the final point of the first set and put the Bears up 1-0.
Kills from McIntyre, Redmond and Walker allowed the Ladyjacks to take their first lead of the match, 4-3, in the second frame, and SFA continued to trade points with their Big 12 rivals during the opening stages of that set. A winner off the hand of KK Payne tied things at seven points each before Baylor took off on a 12-4 scoring surge that featured kills from six different players.
Trailing 19-11, SFA couldn’t make up enough ground to mount a comeback in the set and fell into a 2-0 hole. It wasn’t until the later portion of the third set that the Ladyjacks were able to string some points together and amp up the atmosphere inside Shelton Gym.
On the wrong end of a 19-18 score, Redmond and McIntyre jump-started a 7-2 SFA run to take the set by swinging down on back-to-back kills. McIntyre and Walker teamed up for one of the Ladyjacks’ seven blocks in the match during the run and SFA was aided by a pair of Baylor errors.
Sparked by their win in the third set, SFA came out on the attack in the fourth by receiving kills from five different players and Danae Daron’s second service ace to open up a 15-10 lead. It was then that Staiger stepped up the most for the Bears as she connected on four kills through a 6-0 Baylor run that put the visitors on top once again.
Redmond served up an ace prior to Walker’s 10th kill of the night to push SFA ahead for the last time, 18-16, but Baylor captured seven of the last eight points to secure the win.
Hollas put up her first collegiate double-double by passing out 34 assists and amassing 10 digs. Philo (13 kills, 17 digs) and Morgan Reed (48 assists, 11 digs) each notched double-doubles for Baylor in the win.
With their non-conference schedule in the books, the Ladyjacks’ remaining 15 matches in the 2016 regular season will be of the Southland Conference variety. On Saturday afternoon, one of the league’s fiercest rivalries reignites when Sam Houston State invades Shelton Gym for a 1:00 p.m. showdown with the Ladyjacks.
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