Lady Raiders reign
Baylor beats GPS in volleyball, 3-1
If someone had stumbled into the GPS gym Wednesday evening not knowing what was going on, they might have thought they’d walked in on a state championship volleyball match.
No, this was just a typical Baylor-GPS rivalry meeting.
Baylor defeated the Bruisers 3-1 in a Division II-AA East/Middle Region match — the set scores were 25-11, 25-19, 22-25, and 25-19 — in front of a packed crowd that filled the bleachers. The two raucous student sections spilled onto the floor and chanted back and forth for the full two hours.
“What a great atmosphere for these young ladies on both sides,” Baylor coach Sarah Lail said. “What an opportunity for these strong, confident young women to come out and show their craft. It definitely helps out when you’ve got the fans behind you.”
After the first few minutes of the first set, it looked like the cheering would be one-sided. Reigning state champion Baylor (9-3, 5-0) scored the first 13 points and led 20-3 before closing out the set.
“I’ll take it, but I wasn’t expecting to come out with that kind of a run,” Lail said. “It definitely gave us that momentum and early edge, which, in this match, is just the little thing that you need.”
After the Lady Red Raiders took a back-and-forth second set, it was GPS (8-2, 3-1) that got off to the hot start in the third, going up 12-5 after a seven-point run that sent the home crowd into a frenzy. Baylor took a 21-19 lead and appeared poised to close out the match, but the Bruisers came roaring back to take the set, scoring six of the last seven points.
“We completely psyched ourselves out in the first set,” GPS coach Jasmine Brown said. “We played great after that. Baylor is a very disciplined and strong team, and to take a set off of them shows just how hard these girls are working and how much improvement we’ve made.”
Baylor tugged the momentum back to its side in the fourth, pulling ahead halfway through before winning the set and the match.
“I just told them after the third set that we needed to have more of a sense of urgency,” Lail said. “I told them to go back to disciplined Baylor volleyball, find their roots, and get back grounded.”
Baylor was led by Ally Craig (17 kills), Denver Rogers (13 kills) and Elaine Redman (48 assists).
The Bruisers’ Preslee Brooksbank had 16 kills, 15 digs, and four aces, and teammate Faith Copeland had 31 assists.
Both teams will play nonregion matches today, with Baylor traveling to Cleveland and GPS hosting Walker Valley.
Contact Kevin Llewallyn at sports@timesfreepress.com.