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Tuesday, October 3, 2017 The Baylor Lariat
SOFTBALL from Page 9 play and for a chance to not only make the tournament but also to host it. “Each year our challenge is to put together a schedule that will do three things – one, make us better; two, prepare us for Big 12 play; and three, give us a chance to host the first round of the NCAA Tournament,” Moore said in a press release. “This schedule will accomplish all three of those goals.” Baylor opens its season with a three-game series at home against Northwestern State on Feb. 9 and 10. After that they head to Hattiesburg, Miss. for the Southern Miss Tournament Feb 16-18. In the tournament, Baylor could face McNeese State and No. 16 seed Alabama. The Bears will host the Baylor Invitational against Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian and Jackson State Feb 23-25 before returning to Fullerton, Calif. to participate in the Judi Garman Classic on March 2-4. Baylor will face Iowa, Michigan, the University of North CarolinaCharlotte and national runner-up Florida. Last year in the Judi Garman Classic, Baylor earned victories over Washington, Michigan, UCLA and Arizona State, all teams that made the NCAA Tournament. After a date with Long Beach State, Baylor will fly to the East Coast to participate in the Liberty University Tournament March 9-11. There the Bears will face Liberty, Delaware and Ohio University. After a two-game home set with Texas State on March 14 and North Texas on March 20, Baylor will head to Baton Rouge, La. to participate in the LSU tournament where it will face three more 2017 tournament teams, North Dakota State, BYU and LSU. Baylor will then open Big 12 play with two time defending national champion Oklahoma March 29-31 at Getterman Stadium. Baylor has a split series with Texas, playing in Austin on April 17 before hosting the Longhorns May 5 and 6. The Bears will also make the trip to Stillwater, Okla. on April 13-15 to take on Oklahoma State. Texas and Oklahoma State both made the NCAA tournament in 2017. Baylor will host Kansas April 20-22 and will make road trips to Texas Tech and Iowa State in conference in April as well as trips to Houston and Abilene Christian in April. The Bears will a host a two-game set with McNeese State on April 10 and 11. This series will serve as a homecoming for former volunteer assistant coach Dani Price, who is now the recruiting coordinator for McNeese State. Baylor has a full fall schedule to help it prepare for the spring. The Bears will take on McLennan Community College at 5 p.m. Thursday, before playing a doubleheader with Texas A&M Commerce at 2 p.m. Saturday. Baylor will take on MCC again on Oct. 18 before wrapping up the fall slate against LSU in the Woodlands on Oct. 21.
ROCK CLIMBING from Page 9
“It is a great group of people to be around. They push you to do your best, but they understand that rock climbing is a hobby for most of us,” Romero said. “Everyone is so accepting and that starts with the captains and seeps down to the rest of us.” The rock climbing club will be competing in their first competition Oct. 21 from 5-8 p.m. at the BTHO Gravity Bouldering Competition at Texas A&M.
Sports
Bears block Sooners’ comeback NATHAN KEIL Sports Editor Baylor volleyball has found its winning touch again. Baylor bounced back from a three-set loss to Texas on Wednesday to knock off Oklahoma in four sets 25-10, 19-25, 2514, 25-23 at the Ferrell Center. Redshirt senior outside hitter Katie Staiger led the way with 26 kills,12 digs, three blocks and came up with big plays for the Bears when they needed them most. Staiger said it was the passing skills and creativity of freshman setter Hannah Lockin that helped fuel Staiger’s success. “Hannah was setting tempo really well,” Staiger said. “Seeing the block better and knowing that there was openings over there and being able to put the ball away.” Baylor came out tall and swinging in the first set as the Bears jumped out to a 4-0 lead early, finding success with the block, scoring seven points in the net. Following kills by Lockin, back-toback kills from Staiger and another block from redshirt middle hitter Shelly Fanning pushed the Bears lead to 13-3, forcing a second Oklahoma timeout. Oklahoma tried to fight back into the opening set, cutting the lead to 18-9, but six points off Lockin gave Baylor a set point at 24-9. Two points later, freshman outside hitter Yossiana Pressley closed the door on the first set with a bullet kill down the center of the court. In the second set, Oklahoma blitzed Baylor on its way to a 25-19 second set win. The Sooners hit at a 20 percent clip compared to a -25 percent clip in the first set. Oklahoma also took advantage of 12 Baylor errors while serving two aces. After trailing by as much as nine at 189, Baylor was able to trim the lead to five at 21-16 on two kills from junior outside hitter Aniah Philo and one from junior outside hitter Ashley Fritcher, but the hope for a comeback ended when Staiger’s attack was blocked, giving the Sooners the set. Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre said Baylor was never afraid of Oklahoma’s pace on the attack and so it was all the more disappointing the Bears gave so many points away. “Tonight we struggled because we had a couple of hitters that were giving away points and sometimes you got to do that [look for Staiger to attack],” McGuyre said. “I felt like Oklahoma wasn’t going to hit it hard back at us, so it was discouraging how many points we gave away.” In the third Baylor went right back to its style from the opening set, using a 5-1 run to open the set and a 6-2 run down the
Will Barksdale | Multimedia Journalist
STUFFING THE COMPETITION Redshirt senior outside hitter Katie Staiger spikes the ball against Oklahoma on Wednesday in the Ferrell Center. Staiger finished with a match-high 26 kills.
stretch to take the set 25-14. The Bears overwhelmed the Sooners with their attack, connecting on 19 kills on 38 swings with just four errors in the third. Staiger led the charge, tallying 11 kills in 16 swings, while Philo added four. The fourth set went back and forth with neither team able to build a lead larger than one or two points. With the set tied at 22, Staiger delivered her 26th kill of the match. Fanning then added two more kills, including a tip just over the fingers of the Oklahoma block to take the set 25-23. Philo had another good match for Baylor, falling one kill shy of her career high, as she finished with 13 kills and 12 digs. Fanning added nine kills in the middle for Baylor. Senior libero Jana Brusek anchored the defense with a match-high 17 digs. Baylor showed off its depth, playing 11 players to help weather the storm of the second set, including redshirt sophomore
FOOTBALL from Page 9 quarter. We have a lot of work to do.” Kansas State and Baylor traded off possessions once more in the third quarter before a fumble by the Bears was recovered by Wildcat sophomore defensive end Kyle Ball in what could have been a game-defining turnover. Blasting into the final quarter, Ertz rushed for 15 yards to nail down another touchdown for Kansas State, giving the Wildcats a 27-13 lead. Baylor quickly answered the Wildcats’ scoring drive with a pass from Smith to Mims for a 70-yard Bears touchdown and a score of 27-20. In each of Baylor’s five games this season, Mims has recorded a 20+ yard touchdown. Ertz and the Wildcats continued their run game, but instead of securing their lead with another touchdown, they upped the
score to 30-20 with a 49-yard field goal by McCrane. The Bears tried again to catch up to the Wildcats, but Martin fumbled the ball on a punt and the fumble was recovered by Kansas State. McCrane hit another field goal from 23 yards, making the score 33-20. With less than five minutes left in the game, Geary sacked Smith again for a six-yard loss, and then Smith threw his first and only interception of the game to junior defensive back Kendall Adams, giving Kansas State back the ball with 2:44 left in the game, and securing a Wildcat victory. The Bears have a bye-week next Saturday, but will pick back up at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla.
middle hitter Jaelyn Jackson, who saw her first minutes of the season. Sophomore outside hitter Nicole Thomas and Fritcher combined for four kills and gave McGuyre key minutes with the absence of redshirt senior middle hitter Tola Itiola and the struggles of a few other Baylor hitters. Baylor (13-4, 3-1) now heads to Ames, Iowa, for midweek showdown with No. 18 Iowa State (11-2, 2-1). The two teams split their meetings last year, with Baylor winning in five sets on Oct. 19 in Ames and Iowa State winning in five sets on Nov. 23 at the Ferrell Center. McGuyre said that to beat a very good Iowa State team, Baylor has to have a completely clean match. “We need to bring it all,” McGuyre said. “We need to pack our defense with our digs. We definitely need to bring our blocking with us to Ames and we have to bring our service game.” The Bears will meet the Cyclones at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ames, Iowa.