Oct. 19, 2011
|  | | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | | 25 | 16 | 25 | 25 | | 16 | 25 | 15 | 19 |
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| STATS COMPARISON | | | | Kills | 53 | 48 | | Errors | 14 | 30 | | Total Attacks | 126 | 154 | Attack Pct.
| .310 | .117 | | Assists | 52 | 43 | | Digs | 58 | 53 | | Blocks | 12.0 | 6.0 | | Service Aces | 2 | 3 |
| Stat Leaders | | | Eckerman | 15 | Kills | 18 | Tolbert | | Allison | 43 | Assists | 39 | Harris | | Yogi | 16 | Digs | 15 | Zhang | | Bell | 8 | Blocks | 3 | 4 Players | | 2 Players | 1 | Aces | 1 | 3 Players |
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WACO, Texas- Despite a career-high-tying 18 kills by senior Briana Tolbert, Baylor couldn't hold down No. 10 Texas in a 3-1 loss (16-25, 25-16, 15-25, 19-25) on Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center.
Baylor (15-8, 3-5) battled back from a tough first set to dominate the second set and tie the match going into the intermission. However, Texas (13-4, 6-1) showed why it sits at the top of the Big 12 standings with solid play in the third and fourth sets for the win.
"We played great in the second set, and showed that we can play with a team like Texas," head coach Jim Barnes said. "They are a Final-Four-caliber team, and we aren't there, but we are continuing to improve and our destiny is in our own hands. We came into tonight knowing we would have to serve and pass really well to win, and thought we did at different points. But, that's just a good team with some tremendous athletes."
The Bears got a career-high 18 kills and a .467 hitting percentage from Tolbert, along with 10 kills from Torri Campbell and nine kills and team-high 15 digs by Qian Zhang. Alyssa Dibbern added seven kills and Kate Harris had 39 assists and eight digs. Senior libero Allison King added 11 digs for her 21st consecutive double-figure match. Baylor hit just .117 (48-30-154), while the Texas hit .310 (53-14-126).
"Bri (Tolbert) played great tonight, and she's been playing really well," Barnes said. "We've got to get some more things going consistently on offense with Torri (Campbell) and Zoe (Adom). We had them in there for some different things on offense and defense, but we hurt ourselves with some errors."
Texas relied on Haley Eckerman's 15 kills on offense and Khat Bell's eight blocks on defense. Bailey Webster added 14 kills and Rachael Adams' 13, while setter Hannah Allison added 43 assists.
In the first set, Zhang tied it a 4-4 with a kill, but UT went on a 5-1 run with three consecutive kills before Baylor responded. The Bears got back to within 10-8 on two kills by Tolbert, but the Longhorns scored eight in a row to go up 18-8 on the way to a 25-16 win.
The Bears got it rolling in the second set with a big run early, going up 4-1 after kill by Zhang and Campbell service ace. After UT tied it at 5-5, the Bears went on a 5-0 run, helped by three Longhorn attack errors with a block by Adom and Tolbert. Shortly after, Baylor posted a 6-1 run to go up 19-12 on the strength of two kills by Tolbert. She wasn't done there, adding back-to-back kills for a 21-14 lead before Campbell was in on back-to-back block assists to close out the 25-16 win.
Texas cruised out to a 9-4 lead in each of the next two sets, and never looked back. Tolbert led a small Baylor charge in each set, fueling a 5-2 run in the middle of the third set to get the score to 17-12. From there, UT forced four consecutive Baylor errors on the way to a 25-15 third-set win. In the fourth, Baylor faced an 18-9 deficit, but put together a 7-4 stretch with two kills each by Tolbert and Campbell. Baylor couldn't break the five-point deficit as the Longhorns closed it out 25-19 on a kill by Adams.
Baylor will have the weekend off and return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 26, with a match at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. The match is slated for a 6:30 p.m. start.
