Volleyball: UVA falls in three sets to Baylor

The UVA volleyball team (3-7) fell 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-14) to Baylor (8-4) on Friday night in the Baylor Classic at the Ferrell Center.

“I was really disappointed in our effort tonight,” head coach Dennis Hohenshelt said. “I thought we had a good week of practice and we had built on some things that we needed to be good at. Baylor threw the first punch and we backed away from them. This group needs to be in attack mode from the first serve and that is what I hope we can get back to.”

Virginia trailed 5-2 in the first set, but tied it up at 8-8. Baylor used a 6-1 run to go up 14-9 as the Cavaliers called timeout. UVA remained close and eventually tied the set at 19-19, but Baylor used a 5-1 run to close out the first set with a 25-20 win to lead 1-0. Freshman Kiley Banker (West Lafayette, Ind.) led the Cavaliers with three kills in the opening set.

After falling behind 3-0, Virginia used a 5-2 run to tie the second set at 5-5. The Cavaliers remained close until a 5-1 run put UVA down 15-9. A 3-0 run, that included kills by Banker and senior Haley Kole (Tallahassee, Fla.) along with a block for Banker and freshman Jennifer Wineholt (San Diego, Calif.), for UVA cut the lead to 16-14. Baylor countered with a run of its own and held on to take the second set 25-14.

Baylor jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the third set, but Kole put down two kills and combined with Banker for a block as UVA cut the lead to 8-6 to force a timeout by the Bears. Baylor slowly extended its lead once again and went on to take the third set 25-14 and clinched the match.

Kole and Banker led Virginia with six kills each. Baylor was led by Katie Staiger with 13 kills. Banker also added three blocks to lead the Cavaliers at the net. Senior Lexi Riccolo (Wheaton, Ill.) had a team-high 11 digs.

UVA was unable to find its rhythm offensively as Baylor recorded 13.0 blocks on the night, to five for the Cavaliers. Virginia hit -.010, while the Bears had a .298 hitting percentage.

Virginia will return Saturday to play Washington State at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT and College of Charleston at 6 p.m. ET/5 p.m. CT.