24th-Ranked Baylor Downs Kansas Volleyball In Three
WACO, Texas – In its second conference road match of the year, the University of Kansas volleyball team fell in three sets to the 24th-ranked Baylor Bears Saturday afternoon. The Jayhawks were defeated by scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-17.
KU fell to 8-4 on the season and 1-2 in conference play after its first contest of the season versus a ranked opponent. BU improved to 14-1 and 3-1 the Big 12.
Sophomore Allison Mayfield led the Jayhawk offense with 14 kills. Also notching double digits was junior libero Melissa Manda, who dug up a team-high 12 balls. Freshman Tayler Tolefree also made a strong defensive showing collecting five total blocks, including two solo stuffs.
Junior Jenna Kaiser made her first start of the season at Baylor and contributed seven kills in the effort on a team-best .294 attack percentage. Freshman Morgan Boub made her Big 12 debut and recorded her first career service ace for the Jayhawks.
Kansas stayed close with Baylor through much of the opening set knotting the score 10 times and taking a one-point lead three times. With KU trailing 19-17, BU scored six of the next seven points to win 25-18.
Despite eight kills from Mayfield and limiting its team attack errors to just three, Kansas let set two slip through its fingers. Leading by single-digit points for most of the frame, Baylor scored eight of the final 10 points to record a come-from-behind 25-22 win.
KU took its first multiple-point lead of the match at 8-6 in the second set. The Jayhawks slowly expanded their advantage to 17-14 and then 19-15. Upon reaching the 20-point mark however, Kansas began losing momentum as Baylor scored four-straight points to go ahead 21-20. The Jayhawks struggled against the Bears’ offense through the remainder of the set as they fell 25-22.
During the third and final set, Kansas was hampered by errors committing a match-high 10 attack miscues as Baylor put the match away with a score of 25-17.
KU returns to the friendly confines of the Horejsi Family Athletics Center Wednesday, Sept. 30 to face Colorado in a 6:30 p.m. match.
