Baylor’s Katie Staiger has been the driving force for the Bears in her career, now having put down 1,570 kills on the year becoming the all-time kills leader in Baylor volleyball history during the rally scoring era.
Staiger passed Katie Sanders (2006-09) who put down 1,547 kills in her career during the rally scoring era. In addition to Sanders, Staiger passed non-rally scoring era’s Stevie Nicholas (2000-03) and now just trails Elisha Polk (1996-99) the all-time career kills leader with 2,272.
With preseason just ending, the season is now beginning, not even close to halfway over with. In just the preseason, Staiger has slammed down 227 kills in 13 matches for an average of 4.37 kills per set on a .243 hitting clip. Additionally, Staiger leads the Bears with 13 service aces on the year. In the backcourt, Staiger is a consistent bearing for the team, having dug up 148 digs and blocked 23 balls.
Last season, Staiger was two kills shy of 700, more than doubling her output in the previous two seasons (317 in 2014 and 307 in 2015). Her true-freshman year, Staiger only saw the court in the first two matches due to an ACL tear – in those two matches she put down 21 kills.
It would be difficult for Staiger to surpass Polk in all-time career kills, seeing as she needs 702 more kills to tie. With 16 guaranteed matches left for the Bears, Staiger would need to average 43.87 kills per match to reach the milestone – which is pretty unrealistic. She can, however, continue to build on her rally-scoring total and realistically could reach 2,000 career kills by the end of the season, barring injury or an off match or two.
The Bears begin Big 12 Conference play with Texas Tech at home on September 20 followed by TCU in Fort Worth on September 23.
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