Lady Red Raiders Now 17-3 Following 25-13, 25-18, 25-9 Wins

Baylor's Sarah Lail is just one of many volleyball coaches who say that it's more important how a team plays in October than August or September, so a loss in the semifinals of the River City Rumble this weekend may have served a good purpose for Lail and her Lady Red Raiders.

Whatever the case, Baylor came out with fire in its eyes on Tuesday evening as they swept the Chattanooga Christian Lady Chargers as they improved to 17-3 overall and 5-0 in region play with the victory by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-9.

The Lady Chargers are now 6-5 overall and 2-3 in region play.

Lail has always developed an outstanding team at Baylor.  This year's team may be one of her best yet as she has really good players at every position.  More importantly, these young ladies are really good friends with each other and play well as a team.

"That was a well-rounded match for us as we just kept them guessing where the ball was going," Lail began after tabulating the Baylor stats.

"We're blessed to have multiple players who can really put the ball away, but we have a great setter in Sydney Sharpe who can really distribute the ball and the hitters to finish.  I thought we served especially well as we had a dozen aces, but that just prevented Chattanooga Christian from ever getting their offense started.  And I can't say enough about Emma Mulvaney.  When she's on, she's amazing to watch.

"This was a big region match and we're just trying to get the number one seed as we want to host our first post-season match and not travel.  But I thought we had a nice wakeup call this weekend, but I thought we did a nice job of bouncing back tonight against a team that has really improved since the first time we played them," Lail added.

CCS coach Sophia Bossong felt like her team played well in places, but they just need to be more consistent.

"We need to learn how to put the ball down under pressure, but I thought we played better in the second set as we were more competitive during that stretch," she said afterward.

"We can always do better, but this team has improved a lot since we started and we got better tonight despite the loss.  We knew that we had to do a good job stopping Emma Mulvaney and we were better in the second set, but not so much in the first and third.  We just need to be more consistent," the former UTC player added.

The first set was close at the start as there were three ties in the first four points.  But six straight service points from Jessy Blevins put Baylor ahead 10-4 while four more service points from Rory Oleksik shortly afterward extended the lead from 11-7 to 15-7.

A kill from Riley Ray cut Baylor's lead to 20-13, but the Lady Red Raiders used kills from Addi Kegerreis, Brenna Bagley and K.K. Sherrow to score the last five points for a one-set lead.

The second set was the best of the match as the Lady Chargers seemed to play a bit more relaxed.  There were a dozen ties in the first 16 points, but a kill from Mulvaney gave Baylor the lead at 17-16 and the Lady Red Raiders were able to win it by scoring nine of the final 11 points, including a kill from Bagley to end it.

An ace from Jenna Calhoun gave CCS a quick lead in the final set, but Baylor scored the next four points  and basically overpowered the Lady Chargers after that.  Five different players recorded kills down the stretch, including the last one from Bailey Shahan that clinched the match for the home team.

Mulvaney ended the match with 13 kills and a dozen digs while Sharpe finished with 29 assists, in addition to nine digs and six kills.  Blevins had four aces and 13 digs while Rory Oleksik finished the match with 11 digs.

Ray was the leader for CCS with seven kills and nine digs while Calhoun finished with 19 assists and 14 digs.  Clara Sims added seven digs while Caroline Long had five kills.

The Lady Chargers host the home-schooled Patriots on Thursday in their next match while Baylor returns to action on Saturday at the Southeast Championship in Atlanta.

CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN STATS:

Clara Sims – 7 digs

Riley Ray – 7 kills, 9 digs

Jenna Calhoun – 19 assists, 14 digs, 2 kills

Marjorie Stark – 2 blocks

Isabel Mullins – 1 block

Quin Covey – 1 block

Caroline Long – 5 kills.

BAYLOR STATS:

Brenna Bagley – 5 digs, 1 assist, 9 kills

Hannah Belsinger – 1 dig, 1 ace

Jessy Blevins – 13 digs, 4 aces

Addi Kegerreis – 1 block, 3 digs, 5 kills

Nina Lail – 2 digs, 2 aces

Emma Mulvaney – 1 block, 12 digs, 13 kills, 3 aces

Rory Oleksik – 11 digs, 1 assist, 2 aces

Bailey Shahan – 1 block, 4 kills

Sydney Sharpe – 29 assists, 9 digs, 6 kills

K.K. Sherrow – 2 blocks, 2 kills.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

Baylor Sweeps CCS In Key Region Match - Chattanoogan.com

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