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Daily Bears Report 10/23

Volleyball downs Oklahoma.

By Ohio Baylor Fan
NCAA Football: Kansas at Baylor Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

Today’s Events

Volleyball

  • Baylor volleyball (18-6, 6-2 Big 12) grinded out a 3-1 win over Oklahoma, 22-25, 25-11, 28-26, 27-25, Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center. From Baylor Bears dot com where can also be found the box score, photo gallery and feature story by John Shellenberger of the Baylor Bear Foundation.

The victory snapped an eight-match losing streak to the Sooners (12-9, 3-5 Big 12), including the squad's first home win against OU since Sept. 28, 2008.

The win gives BU a 6-2 conference record at the halfway mark of Big 12 play, exceeding last season's conference win total (5).

Redshirt junior Katie Staiger led the Bears with her 12th season double-double, adding 19 kills and 14 digs in the win. Aniah Philo and Ashley Fritcher added 15 and 13 kills, respectively. Both totals were season and career highs for the sophomores.

The Bears led early in set one, but a late run by the Sooners forced BU to take a timeout. Baylor saved two set points before dropping the opening frame, 25-22.

Baylor jumped out to a 5-1 lead early in set two and never looked back. The Bears rolled with 15 kills and only one attack error, led by junior Camryn Freiberg with 5 kills in set two. BU took the set, 25-11, after holding OU to a .029 attack average.

Baylor and OU fought back and forth in the fourth set with neither team leading by more than a point early. BU was forced to call a timeout after a 20-17 Oklahoma lead. Baylor converted its third set point for the 28-26 win.

Much like the third set, set four went to extra points. Baylor saved a set point with a block from Fritcher and freshman Nicole Thomas, and senior Morgan Reed added the final kill for the 27-25 set win.

Halfway through the volleyball season, the Baylor Bears have seen a little bit of everything. From upsetting ranked opponents, to winning 10 consecutive matches, anyone can see just how different this team is from the others in Baylor's recent history.

How different? The Bears are now 6-2 in Big 12 play, matching the best start to conference play in program history.

Tennis

  • Baylor men’s tennis sophomore Jimmy Bendeck won two singles matches Saturday at the ITA Texas Regional Championships Presented by Oracle to make the main draw quarterfinals at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Bendeck, seeded 10th at the event, best Lamar’s Sebastian Santibanez, 6-2, 6-4, in the round of 64. Later in the day, the BU sophomore upset sixth-seed Gerardo Lopez Villasenor of TCU, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, to get to the quarterfinals. Bendeck is now 11-1 on the year in singles play.

Will Little and Bjoern Petersen were both knocked out of the singles main draw in the round of 16. Little came up short, 6-4, 6-4, against Texas A&M’s Arthur Rinderknech, who is seeded No. 1 and ranked No. 9 in the nation.

Petersen suffered a 7-6, 6-4 setback to Texas’ Harrison Scott, who is seeded fifth and ranked No. 71 in the country.

In doubles, Little and Petersen fell 8-6 in round of 16 action against Christian Sigsgaard and Julian Zlobinsky of Texas.

Meanwhile in the consolation draw, Bendeck and Frantzen won a pair of matches. First, the BU pair took down Abilene Christian’s Jackson Fine and Cole Lawson, 8-4. In the quarterfinals, Bendeck and Frantzen bested Kevin Lam (Texas A&M) and Luis Tirado (UTSA), 8-2.

Today, Bendeck will play in the singles quarterfinals at 3 p.m. CT against Texas’ Yuya Ito, who is seeded fourth.

In the doubles consolation draw, Bendeck and Frantzen will play in the semifinals against Lamar’s Michael Feucht and Santibanez at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

  • In women’s tennis, a pair of Bears played their way into ITA Texas Regional Championship Presented by Oracle semifinals Saturday at Hurd Tennis Center. From Baylor Bears dot com. Photo Gallery.

In singles action, No. 2 seed Blair Shankle defeated No. 15 seed Petra Granic of Texas, 6-1, 6-3, to open the day. In the quarterfinal round, the senior played her way to semifinals with a win in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0, against UT-San Antonio’s Miriam Rosell.

In the doubles quarterfinal round, sophomore Elizabeth Profit and Shankle faced Rice’s Lindsey Hodge and Priya Niezgoda. In a tight game, Shankle and Profit came out on top, coming from behind to earn the win 8-7 (3) to reach the semifinal round.

Rounding out play for the Bears were freshman Jessica Hinojosa and senior Rhiann Newborn. Despite playing through many long points, Hinojosa ultimately fell to UT-Arlington’s Augustina Serio, 6-4, 6-4. Newborn fell in straight sets to Marie Norris of TCU, 6-0, 6-1.

“Today overall was a good day,” senior Blair Shankle said. “Liz and I pulled through in doubles, and we were really happy to get that win. Then in singles, I just really tried to focus on every game and make every one count because I wanted to try and win the games as quick as possible, get off and try to get ready for the next day. Overall, it was a good day. Tough people I played against, but I’m happy with how I played.

Day four of the ITA Texas Regional Championship Presented by Oracle kicks off with doubles at 10 a.m. (CT) at Hurd Tennis Center. Senior Blair Shankle and sophomore Elizabeth Profit, the No. 2 seed in the doubles bracket, will meet Maria Kononova and Tauna Kutubidze of North Texas in the semifinal. Shankle will face the No. 6 seed, Rachel Pierson of Texas A&M, in her singles semifinal scheduled for 1 p.m.

Lady Bears

Equestrian

In fences, the Cowgirls claimed a thin 3-2 advantage, with Savannah Jenkins and Alicia Gasser each picking up points for the Bears.

OSU took a more commanding lead in reining, winning the event, 4-1. Ginger Chant logged the lone point for BU, with the Bears trailing 7-3 at the break.

In flat, the Cowgirls notched another 3-2 win, clinching the Hunt Seat discipline, 6-4. Jenkins and Gasser were the two scorers for BU again, with Gasser earning the lone Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honor of the meet for the Bears.

Trailing 10-5 entering horsemanship, the Bears managed to pull out its lone event win, taking the 3-2 victory. Charlotte Green, Aspen Crew, and Abbi Demel grabbed BU’s points, with OSU winning the Western discipline, 6-4, and the meet, 12-8.

Golf

  • Baylor women’s golf is headed to the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, a three-day, 54-hole tournament at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The UNLV-hosted tournament runs Sunday through Tuesday.

The tournament will be played on a par-72, 6,301-yard course. Teams will play the Desert Hawk course as the front nine and the Coyote Run course as the back nine. All three rounds will be shotgun starts, with Sunday’s first round at 2 p.m. CT and the remaining rounds at 10 a.m. on both Monday and Tuesday.

The 19-team field includes tournament-host UNLV, No. 29 Baylor, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Idaho, Indiana, Long Beach State, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, No. 37 New Mexico State, No. 31 San Diego State, San Jose State, No. 14 Texas, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and Vanderbilt.

Baylor’s lineup features junior Amy Lee, freshman Evelyn Arguelles, sophomore Dylan Kim, sophomore Maria Vesga and freshman Fiona Liddell. Junior Giovana Maymon will play as an individual.

Players in the BU lineup are paired with golfers from UNLV and Texas, while Maymon will play with Nebraska’s Annie Sritragul and Colorado State’s Elisabeth Rau. Arguelles and Lee will start Sunday’s first round from the first tee, Vesga and Kim will begin from No. 2, Liddell will tee off from the third hole and Maymon will start on the 15th tee.

Soccer

Kansas soccer will look to close out its final regular-season road trip on a high note when the Jayhawks journey to Waco, Texas for a Sunday contest with the Baylor Bears. A Kansas victory would pull the Jayhawks into second on the league table heading into the final match of Big 12 play Friday. Kickoff from Betty Lou Mays Field is slated for 1 p.m., and will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest and the FoxSportsGo app.

  • WacoTrib’s John Werner says that Baylor’s Lindsay Burns earns a reputation as one of the Big 12’s best defenders. BearsExtra has the full story.

Growing up in Yakima, Wash., Lindsay Burns didn’t know much about Baylor except that it was in Texas and had a good soccer program.But she wanted to get away from the cold, rainy northwest for a warmer climate. So she committed to the Bears as a sophomore at West Valley High School.

“I grew up with the idea that I would leave home for college,” Burns said. “I really wanted to go somewhere warmer, so I looked at a lot of schools in California and Texas. I really love the welcoming atmosphere here and the coaches are great. But the main thing that sold me was the team and how close they all seemed.”

Burns fit right in from the moment she stepped on campus.

After coming off the bench as a freshman, Burns has started the last three seasons while earning a reputation as one of the best defenders in a program that prides itself on shutting down teams.

Signing exactly a week apart, junior college All-American midfielder Aline De Lima from Monroe (N.Y.) College and All-Southland Conference defender Caitlin Schwartz from Sam Houston State added depth and experience to a team brimming with youth.

A native of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the 5-foot-3 De Lima scored 33 goals in 34 games in stops at Northwest (Wyoming) College and Monroe.

"We lost a special player in Bri Campos," Jobson said of the two-time All-Big 12 forward, "and we brought in Aline hoping maybe she could fill the gap a little bit."

Between the transition to major college soccer and a preseason injury, De Lima had little to no impact until notching a pair of goals in a 7-0 win over Jackson State and then blasting a golden goal from 25 yards out in a 2-1 overtime win at Oklahoma State.

"The transition for her has been a little bit difficult, and then she's had a little bit of an injury and just coming into a new environment," Jobson said. "But, Aline's starting to catching up really well and she's starting to feel really, really healthy. And I think we've seen through the Jackson State game and her game at Oklahoma State what she's actually capable of.

"It's a big part of what we need in our game right now, just for depth purposes and the special things she brings to the game in general."

Before coming to Baylor, De Lima scored 10 goals in 17 games in earning 2014 conference Freshman of the Year honors at Northwest College. As a sophomore at Monroe College, she tailed 23 goals and six assists, notched seven game-winners and was named an NSCAA first-team All-American.

"My first two years were great, and now I have the opportunity to come here and continue my soccer career and my studies," she said. "The moment I came here on the visit, I felt like it was going to be my place and my next family, and I felt so good about it. I just love the philosophy we have here."

After sitting out both preseason exhibitions and five of the first nine regular-season games, De Lima showed her scoring potential with the two goals against Jackson State and the game-winner at Oklahoma State.

In the sixth minute of the first overtime period at OSU, De Lima got a "second ball and I took the touch and I knew I was going to shoot it," she said.

"It was amazing, a great experience for me to score that goal in that moment," she said. "I don't know how to express that, because in the moment of my celebration I had no idea what I did. I was feeling so good about that. The work for the team was great as well, and I scored because of that."

Being from Brazil, De Lima "plays a whole different style than what we're used to," said sophomore forward Lauren Piercy. "But her in the OSU game was so critical. She kept the ball to our feet instead of just over-hitting."

It wasn't as circuitous a route for Schwartz, a 5-9 junior from San Antonio, Texas. While she was on Baylor's recruiting radar and "always wanted to be a Baylor Bear," Schwartz started all 40 games in two seasons at Sam Houston State and earned first-team All-Southland Conference honors last year.

"I know as a player, and even in the classroom, I just want to push myself and do as best as I can," she said. "If I feel like I'm not getting challenged enough, then I just want to branch out. That's kind of what I wanted to do. I always wanted to come be a Baylor Bear. I tried at the beginning of my freshman year, and then I decided to go to Sam to get more experience. Then, I just came back here, and I knew it was God's plan."

Jobson says Schwartz is "fitting really, really well into what we're doing here." Through the first 13 games, Baylor's defense ranked second in the Big 12 and 21st nationally, giving up just eight goals (.595 goals-against average).

"She's putting in some great minutes and doing some really great things for us," Jobson said.

A center midfielder most of her life, Schwartz switched to center back at Sam Houston, was recruited to play the defensive sweeper position at Baylor and then moved back to center mid when Previous Akanyirige got hurt.

That's where Schwartz was for the conference opener against Texas, when she took a pass from Sarah King and rifled in a strike from eight yards out from the right side of the box for the equaling goal in a 1-1 tie with the Longhorns.

"I just remember after I scored, I was like, `I didn't do that, I didn't just do that, I scored,''' said Schwartz, who has scored one goal in each of her three collegiate seasons. "I was really excited, but I didn't really celebrate that much because it was 1-1 and we had to score another one."

Football

Bryce Petty

He understands the waiting game. His career stalled for 1,700 days before he finally became the starting quarterback at Baylor.

“86,” Petty said, correcting. “1,786.”

The excruciating delay — four years 10 months and a little over three weeks — between his final high school start and his first in college, in 2013, became part of what made his instant Heisman Trophy campaign so gratifying. (He finished seventh in the voting that year, far behind the winner, Jameis Winston, and just ahead of Derek Carr, who is now the starter for the Oakland Raiders.)

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