Wildcats Dominate Bluejays to Earn Second Straight Sweep

BALDWIN CITY – After taking down Friends in straight sets in Friday's season opener, Baker volleyball bagged its second straight sweep with a 3-0 victory over visiting Tabor here Tuesday night in the Collins Center.

Besides some bumps in the first set, the Wildcats delivered an all-around dominating performance with the team hitting a blistering .320 and tallying 10 aces from the service line. Kaitlyn Stout posted her second straight game with double-digit kills after 11 of her 19 attacks in the match resulted in a point. Setter Taryn Dial recorded a team-high 18 assists.

"Looking at the stat sheet, these are some of the best numbers across the board that I've seen since I started coaching here," said Baker head coach Nils Nielsen. "We hit at a really, really high efficiency tonight and our serving was also some of the best I've seen in this gym (Collins). The discipline on defense was key for us again and that's a credit to the girls for buying in on it, so we truly excelled in all phases of the game tonight."

Baker opened the match by using a string of four straight points to take the lead in the first set with Kate Reese bookending a couple of aces during her serve to give BU an early advantage. The Bluejays would briefly take control from there and work a four-point lead at multiple points in the frame.

Trailing 15-11 midway through the set, the Wildcats stormed back with back-to-back kills by Aby Widhalm tying things up and setting the stage for a momentous run to close the set. BU rattled off nine unanswered points to take the set, 25-17 with three consecutive kills from Stout and some excellent serving by Emma Grossoehme that led to several straight attacks for Baker's front row.

Tabor earned the first three points and took command early on in the second set as well, but the Wildcats worked their way back and used rotating attacks from Widhalm, Kierra Hipple and Kylie Murray to take a 13-12 lead.

Kierstyn Harmon followed with a set of aces to push the advantage and Grossoehme added another one during her serve before a thunderous spike from Olivia Deichmann secured the second set for BU on a score of 25-19.

In the third set, Baker put together another impressive rally with a 7-0 run to make it a five-point ballgame that was punctuated by a block from Deichmann and Hipple. The Wildcats would lead by as much as 10 points in the set with back-to-back kills by Murray before the final score settled at 25-16 to give BU its second straight victory in minimum sets.

With 3-0 victories in their first two matches of the year, the Wildcats have still yet to lose a set in 2024 and opened the season with back-to-back sweeps for the first time since at least 2004.

Baker will head out for its first road test of the season with a rematch against Friends taking place on Friday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. in Wichita, Kan.

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