Volleyball | 10/8/2015 1:06:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – After winning three consecutive conference matches, Texas State will test its mettle against a Big 12 opponent when the team travels to face Baylor at 7 p.m. Friday.
 
Match Info: Texas State (11-8, 6-1 SBC) at Baylor (12-5, 1-3 Big 12)
Site: Ferrell Center – Waco, Texas
Date: Friday, October 9 – 7 p.m.
 
The Series
Vs. Baylor: 28-14-2
Last Meeting: L, 3-1 (9/3/14)
 
Texas State owns the record against Baylor, 28-14-2, but has only won once in the last nine meetings between the two teams. In the last meeting, Texas State broke an attendance record with 3,591 fans in attendance at Strahan Coliseum. Unfortunately, Baylor persevered, 3-1.
 
Shelby Vas Matt and Alexandra Simms led the team with 12 kills apiece while Lauren Kirch and Keeley Davis combined for 15 kills. Jordan Moore gave out 39 assists while Kirch led the team in blocks with three. Sierra Smith led the team in digs with 16 while Moore and Vas Matt added a combined 26 digs among the two.
 
The Bobcats opened up with a win in the first set, but Baylor won the final three, winning two sets by a score of 25-23, to knock off the Bobcats.
 
On the Bears
Baylor enters Friday's match after having lost two consecutive matches and three of the team's last four matches. Before that, however, Baylor had won five consecutive and only dropped one in a string of 12 matches.
 
The Bears have been tough at home this season, only losing one match in eight home matches. They dropped their first home match last time out with a 3-0 loss to perennial power Texas. The Bobcats will be trying to make it two in a row.
 
Offensively, Baylor has three players with triple-digit kills and one with 96. Katie Staiger leads the pack with 187 while Shelly Fanning has 182. Andie Malloy as 154 kills this season while Tola Itiola has 96. The Bears use a 6-2 rotation with Morgan Reed and Amy Rosenbaum orchestrating the offense. Rosenbaum has 381 assists this season with 302 for Reed. They have both combined for 24 aces while Malloy and Jana Brusek have combined for the same amount of service aces.
 
Defensively, Brusek leads the squad in digs with 211, just 3.25 digs per set. Malloy has 152 while both Rosenbaum and Mackenzie Mayo have 120 or more. Itiola leads the tema's efforts at the net with 65 blocks, eight solo. Jordan Vail has 46 while Malloy has 45 and Fanning has 46.
 
On the Bobcats
Texas State has looked great since Sept. 15. Since that date, the Bobcats have gone 7-1 with the lone loss coming on the road to Appalachian State, a team that is undefeated in Sun Belt Conference action. In that streak, the Bobcats busted a 26-match streak of conference wins for Little Rock, the nation's longest such streak. They have also jumped out to a 6-1 start in SBC play to currently sit third in the conference.
 
Jordan Kohl continues to lead the Bobcats in kills with 193, adding to it her total with a career-high total of 24 kills last match. Kelsey Weynand added her career high, 22 kills, last match and currently has 109 on the season. Shelby Vas Matt is second on the squad with 139 while Morgan Lewis sits third with 117. Lewis also leads the squad in blocks with 69. No other Bobcat has more than Kohl's 39 blocks, but Lauren Kirch is making a comeback off injury and had three blocks in the last match.
 
Despite not playing last match, Sierra Smith leads the team in digs with 249. Vas Matt has 144 and Weynand has tallied 124. Alex Silver has 93 digs, but posted 24 as the libero in substitution for Smith last match. Running the offense, Erin Hoppe has 492 assists this season, including 62 in Texas State's last match. She also leads the team and the conference in Sun Belt play with 30 aces on the season and 16 in conference play. Hoppe has served up 12 aces in the last three matches.
 
A Look Ahead
Texas State's longest road swing of the season starts with this match against Baylor. Next, the Bobcats will travel to UT Arlington, Arkansas State, Troy and South Alabama for four consecutive conference matches. Texas State returns home to Strahan Coliseum to host UL Monroe and Troy on Halloween weekend with matches on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31 with both matches at 6:30 p.m.