Baylor Advances To State Volleyball Again

Lady Red Raiders Now 26-4 With Sweep Of St. Mary's

It didn't take long for the Baylor Lady Red Raiders to punch their ticket for next week's state volleyball tournament that will be held in Murfreesboro.

Taking just over an hour, Baylor improved to 26-4 with a 3-0 victory over the St. Mary's Turkeys, winning by scores of 25-22, 25-7 and 25-14.

The Turkeys came out firing in the first set and opened a 10-1 lead.  The difference was still 20-10 when Baylor coach Sarah Lail called her second timeout, but that's when Baylor came off the deck and made a tremendous comeback, scoring 15 of the final 17 points and basically taking all the wind out of the sails from the team from Memphis.
 

Baylor's Lail was as happy as anyone when the match ended and her team had advanced to the state tournament for the 15th time in her 16 years as their coach.

"St. Mary's came out on fire as we struggled to pass at the start, but we never got scared, stayed calm and trusted the process," Lail said afterward.

"We had done our research and knew who their strong hitters were, but we need to go through some adversity like that at times.  I thought our serving was critical as we ended the match with 17 aces.

"Jessy Blevins did a great job as she had served tough all week in practice, so she came out ready today. That first set was tough, but we knew we just needed some momentum to get to the second set.

"This is one of the most enjoyable teams I've covered in my 16 years here as the senior leadership is outstanding.  They hold each other accountable and they all matter.  This is a special group and we're hoping to win another state title next week," the veteran coach smiled.

St. Mary's coach Allison Wallace knew that her team was fully capable of playing the way they did in the opening set.  She was just sorry they couldn't maintain that high level of play.

"I thought we came here prepared today and we stuck to our game plan for the most part.  We were firing on all cylinders at the start, but we got a little rattled on serve receive toward the end of the first set and that hurt. 

"It's hard to sustain that level of play, but I'm really proud of these girls as we've never been this far before," she smiled.

An ace from Ella Alpe, a block from Ejame Ataga and a kill from Kamryn Keith allowed the Turkeys to score the first four points before a kill from Sydney Sharpe gave Baylor its first point.

St. Mary's kept the pressure on and extended a 10-1 lead to 20-10 before Lail called her second timeout.  Things changed after that break as Sharpe had four straight service points before the Turkeys scored again.  A service error by St. Mary's gave the sideout back to Baylor where Blevins did her thing without batting an eye, knocking down eight straight service points, including the last five with aces.

A block from Keith snapped that streak, but a service error on the next ball allowed Baylor to win that first set.

Baylor never trailed again for the rest of the match.

The Lady Red Raiders carried that momentum over to the second set where they scored six of the first seven points.  A kill from Emma Mulvaney stretched Baylor's lead to 9-6, setting the stage for Rory Oleksik, who had 11 straight service points for a commanding 20-6 lead.

A kill from Eleanor Chandler postponed the inevitable temporarily, but the Turkeys were a bit rattled at the end and had three hitting errors allowed Baylor to win by scoring the final four points.

The third set was just a formality as Baylor was in total control and St. Mary's was just trying to hang on.  Addi Kegerreis had four kills in a six-point stretch to build a 19-10 lead and the match ended a minute or two later when Mulvaney had a kill before ending it with an ace.

Blevins and Oleksik both had five aces to lead Baylor while Kegerreis and Mulvaney led the hitters with nine kills apiece.  Oleksik also had 16 digs while Brenna Bagley had 10. 

Sharpe had another outstanding performance to finish with 23 assists in addition to two blocks, four digs, three kills and three aces.

While Baylor improves to 26-4, St. Mary's season ends at 16-14.

BAYLOR STATS:

Brenna Bagley – 10 digs, 1 assist, 2 kills

Jessy Blevins – 9 digs, 2 assists, 5 aces

Addi Kegerreis – 1 block, 9 kills

Nina Lail – 3 aces

Emma Mulvaney – 4 blocks, 3 digs, 1 ace, 9 kills

Rory Oleksik – 16 digs, 1 assist, 5 aces

Bailey Shahan – 1 block, 3 kills

Sydney Sharpe – 2 blocks, 4 digs, 3 kills, 23 assists, 3 aces

Kaiulani Sherrow – 2 blocks, 4 kills.

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