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OU sweeps match, series from Bears

Nov. 5, 2009

Jed Dean | Photo Editor Members of Baylor's volleyball team huddle during Wednesday's 3-0 loss against the University of Oklahoma. The defeat puts the No. 20-ranked Bears fifth in the Big 12 standings.

By Kevin Tamer
Sports Writer

The No. 20-ranked Baylor volleyball team was unsuccessful in securing its 20th win of the season, as it was swept by the University of Oklahoma (25-22, 25-20, 25-22) Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center.

Coming into the match with a 19-5 record, the Bears were in prime position to record their first 20-win season since 1999. However, Baylor was unable to take a set from a Sooner team which recorded a combined 52 kills and .311 hitting percentage.

Katie Sanders led the Bears offense with 11 kills, while outside hitter Torri Campbell and setter Taylor Barnes both contributed eight of their own. However, the defense struggled, as senior middle blocker Anna Breyfogle believes Baylor's 22 errors played a big part in this loss.

"We beat ourselves," Breyfogle said. "Oklahoma has a good program and a great team, but I think that if we had played our game, it would have went the other way. We had a lot of errors that hurt our team focus. We couldn't get into a run with error after error.

In the first set, Baylor jumped out to an early 4-0 lead as Campbell recorded her first kill of the game and followed it by teaming up with Elizabeth Graham and Sanders for back-to-back blocks. The Bears extended their lead to 9-3 on a service ace by Allison King and got kills from Graham, Ashlie Christenson and Anna Breyfogle as well. However, Baylor couldn't hold off Oklahoma for long as the Sooners scored seven consecutive points to take a 17-15 lead.

From there, the Sooners took advantage of Baylor errors and continued to score as they as they took a 24-19 lead. Katie Sanders recorded back-to-back kills followed by another kill by Campbell, but Baylor couldn't finish off the comeback as Oklahoma's Sarah Freudenrich recorded a kill to give the Sooners the set 25-22.

Baylor head coach Jim Barnes said the Bears' inability to stop the Sooners from producing kills was a key to this game.

"We jumped on them early, and they made a charge back. We didn't handle that well," he said. "We basically couldn't stop their middles tonight, and for the most part of the season we did a good job of stopping middles. But tonight Oklahoma was just on. They probably played one of their best matches this season, and we weren't up for the challenge."

In the second set, Baylor traded points with the Sooners as Christenson and Sanders both recorded three kills and Graham and Campbell combined for three to tie the score at 9-9. From there Baylor scored on a kill by Sanders and a block from Campbell, but the Sooners went on a 6-2 scoring run as they extended their lead to 18-13. The Bears were able to get points on two kills by Barnes and Breyfogle, but they could not keep the Sooners from continuing to score as they extended their lead to 23-16. Baylor cut into the Sooners' lead by scoring three consecutive points on a serving ace and a kill by Sanders and followed by another kill by Graham. However, the Bears could not come back from a 24-20 deficit as the Sooners took the set on a service error by Allison King.

In the third set, the Sooners jumped out to an early 8-2 lead by scoring six consecutive points on five kills and an attack error by Campbell. However, Baylor wasn't going down easy as it got back-to-back kills by Sanders and another by Campbell to get within one point of the Sooners to make the score 11-10. The Bears were able to take advantage of two Sooner errors and a kill by Breyfogle to take their first lead of the set at 16-15. From there Baylor traded points with the Sooners, with Barnes recording consecutive kills, but were unable to ever regain a lead as they fell 25-22.

Despite this loss, Taylor Barnes notes the importance of practicing hard and bouncing back on the road against Texas A&M this Saturday.

"We need to come into practice and focusing on playing against Texas A&M and putting this behind us," she said. "We need to come together as a team, because we don't want to be what Baylor volleyball has been in the past. We want to make the tournament and finish the season strong."

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