Volleyball Loses in Five at Baylor

Saturday, September 17

Waco, Texas

5:05 PM

Washington State University

10-2

Baylor

10-4

Washington State

Baylor

September 17, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

WACO, Texas – It was night of great blocking and career-high numbers for members of the Washington State volleyball team (10-2) but the Cougars fell to Baylor (10-4) in a tightly-contested 3-2 loss Saturday at the Baylor Classic tournament at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.

The home-court Bears downed WSU, listed in the also receiving votes category in the last two consecutive AVCA Coaches Top 25 Polls, with set scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 22-25, and 15-9.

Senior Kyra Holt, named Best Attacker of the tournament, recorded her 40th double-double of her distinguished career with a match-high 19 kills and 17 digs. She added two service aces bringing her career total to 103, seventh-best in WSU all-time records. Claire Martin had 13 blocks, a career-high for the sophomore from Bremerton, Wash., and ties the WSU record for total blocks in a five-set match with Holly Harris who had 13 blocks against ASU in 2000. Martin was named the Best Blocker of the tournament. Taylor Mims and McKenna Woodford both had 13 kills, a career-high for Mims, and Casey Schoenlein had eight kills. WSU had 19.5 team blocks with Schoenlein contributing seven, Mims six, Hailey Bethune five, and Woodford four. Freshman Alexis Dirige had a career-high 24 digs. Setters Haley MacDonald and Nicole Rigoni combined for 48 assists and 24 digs.

Baylor's Katie Staiger, named the tournament MVP, led the Bears with 16 kills and 21 digs while Camryn Freiberg had 12 kills and a team-high four blocks. Jana Brusek also had 21 digs and Aniah Philo added eight kills and 18 digs. Morgan Reed, named Best Setter at the tournament, had 46 assists.

WSU hit .127 for the match and Baylor hit .113. The Cougars out-hit the Bears with 58 kills to 55 kills. Baylor narrowly won the digs battle 90 to 88. Baylor had seven team blocks.

"Baylor played really well tonight and I definitely think it was not our best outing. Our hitters really struggled tonight and that credit goes to Baylor for playing some good defense and having a good block up on us," WSU Head Coach Jen Greeny said. "We're going to see that every night in the Pac-12 and we have to learn how to put the ball away in a different way. Unfortunately it is a short week with a fast turn-around and we're going to have to watch some film and see what we can do to make ourselves better."

WSU opens Pac-12 Conference play next week, at No. 5 Washington Wednesday, Sept. 21, and at No. 11 UCLA Friday, Sept. 23.