Daily Bears Report 10/8

Today’s Events

• Baylor Crew, Head of the Brazos Rowing Regatta, 8:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
• Softball, vs Spring Klein College Tournament (Fall), TBA
• Women's Tennis, vs Under Armour/HEB Kickoff, 12:00 noon
• Men's Tennis, vs ITA All-American Championships, All Day

Sic ‘em Bears!

Baylor Athletics Weekend Update

Baylor Crew

• Baylor Crew will be hosting their annual Head of the Brazos rowing regatta today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Our Daily Bears has the events and start times in this story.

The races will take place along the Brazos River with spectator seating available from the pedestrian bridge.

Softball

Women’s Tennis

• Baylor women’s tennis players Elizabeth Profit and Theresa Van Zyl advanced to the singles quarterfinals after the first day of matches at the Under Armour/H-E-B Kickoff Friday. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Following a bye in the first round of singles action at the Hurd Tennis Center, Van Zyl won 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 over Wisconsin’s Michelle Linden in the round of 16.

Profit, also had a first round bye, but then went on to win in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3 against Madalina Grigoriu of Louisiana-Monroe to advance to the quarterfinals.

Baylor’s two other singles participants were both knocked out of the draw on the opening day.

After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, Karina Traxler won the next set, but ultimately fell to Tarani Kamoe of Georgia State, 7-6, 1-6, 6-0, in her first round match. In the consolation bracket, Traxler picked up a straight-set victory over Sydney Rider of Wisconsin, 7-5, 6-0.

Receiving a bye in the first round, Jessica Hinojosa jumped out to an early lead in her second-round contest winning the first set 6-4, before dropping the final two sets, 6-2, 6-2 to Mississippi State’s Sara Lizariturry.

In doubles, both of Baylor’s doubles tandems Profit/Van Zyl and Hinojosa/Traxler received first round byes and will start action Saturday morning.

“The ladies have made steady progress since the wildcard event last month. I don't want to overreact to the small sample size, but I feel like we have added a level. The key is for us to do it over and over and over.” - head coach Joey Scrivano

Action will resume at 9 a.m. CT Saturday morning at the Hurd Tennis Center.

Men’s Tennis

• Baylor men's tennis senior Max Tchoutakian came from behind to win his second singles match at the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships Friday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The Aix en Provence, France, product dropped a 6-4 first set decision to Florida's 22nd-ranked Elliott Orkin, but rebounded to stage a 7-6(2), 6-4 comeback in sets two and three to compete the upset.

Tchoutakian is now 4-2 on the season and 3-1 against ranked foes.

Today, Tchoutakian will play Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard in the round of 16. If he wins that match, he will go on to play in the draw's quarterfinals later Saturday against an opponent to be determined.

Baylor Lady Bears

Watch as Alyssa Dry casually hits from near half court.

Dinner with the Lady Bears.

Cross Country

• The Baylor women’s cross country team finished fourth Friday at the Aggieland Open at Dale Watts Course. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The Lady Bears were led by freshman Isabella Lackner, who completed the 5,000-meter course in 19:49.95 to place 20th.

Behind Lackner, Haley Everroad (20:13.40) was 25th, while Leila Rohde took 31st in a time of 20:32.94.

Baylor’s two final scoring runners were Lindsay Walton (21:04.42) and Sydney Gandy (21:36.26), who finished 37th and 43rd, respectively.

Those five scoring athletes tallied 111 points to finish 32 points ahead of fifth-place Louisiana Tech (143).

Soccer

• Baylor soccer earned a 2-1 win over No. 22 Oklahoma on Friday evening at OU Soccer Complex. Baylor Bears dot com has the story, stats and notes for the Bears and the match.

The Bears (9-4-1, 2-1-1) received stellar efforts by Sarah King and Julie Jamesas both played a part in both goals that toppled the Sooners (10-4-1, 3-2-0).

In the seventh minute, King executed a quick throw-in from the left corner in OU territory to Julie James, who fired a shot in the box from the left wing that was deflected by the goalkeeper. Fortunately, Raegan Padgett was there to poke in the rebound for a 1-0 lead.

The Sooners responded quickly with a goal in the 10th minute by Liz Keester, and the 1-1 score stood until the 71st minute. Off a BU corner kick by Ashley York, James had the first touch in the box and passed to King for the game-winner in front of the net.

“This is a great result for our girls. They deserved it. I’m not taking anything away from OU – they’re a great team. We just battled and locked down defensively really well. We came out with a big win, doing what we needed to do to win the game. Now we turn around and get ready for another great team on the road at Texas Tech on Sunday.” – Head Coach Paul Jobson.

Football

• Usports at todaysu dot com reports “Baylor defense returns to basics to become more formidable.”

Baylor’s offense has been the cream of the crop for the past few years. At this time last season, it was averaging over 60 points per game. To see the Bears stuck at 42 points per game is a little surprising (third in the Big 12 in scoring), but what’s more surprising is that the defense seems to be better than ever despite returning just five starters and switching the base scheme.

Coming off a game in which they allowed 42 points and kept the offense playing from behind for all but the last six minutes, it may seem a bit off to put the Bears’ defenders on such a pedestal. Yet, the defense still ranks second in the conference in scoring and total defense, allowing 19.2 points and 341 yards per game.

There’s a considerable drop-off from Kansas State and Baylor in the Big 12. TCU’s defense is allowing 75 yards more per game. Baylor is also tied for second in the league with nine forced turnovers and ranks first with 29 passes defended.

FanPosts

• New fanposter SoFlo2020 hit a home run on the first at bat with the fan post: AN ACTUAL BAYLOR STUDENT JOINS THE FRAY. The Our Daily Bears readership has voted this fanpost to “Recommended” status.

It has obviously been surreal, signing on to attend a University known mostly for its outstanding academic reputation and explosive offense, with only whispers of a scandal floating around, only to arrive and find myself swamped in bad news and general negativity from the national press on a daily basis. I landed in a place that, to me, is the most loving, caring, open, and intellectually stimulating community I've ever had the good fortune to get to be a part of. And yet, I find this place trashed openly with little to no factual information behind the claims, only a heaping dose of bias and inflammatory rhetoric coupled with a disturbing penchant for reporting hearsay and speculation as hard truths.

• jdaustex continues his dubbing skills with Bible lessons with J.J. Joe. And a football game.
• p_frey continues his Big XII stats and trivia series with Big 12 Bathroom Reader: Week 6 Stats, Facts, & Figures.

Baylor Hall of Fame

• Checkout this excerpt from a story by Jerry Hill of the Baylor Bear Foundation:

Nearly 20 years after then-Baylor women’s tennis assistant coach Previn Waas tracked down Jahnavi Parekh in Africa, the two-time All-American was back in Tanzania last month to get married.

A native of Mumbai, India, who played at Baylor from 1998-2001, Parekh decided to get married in Africa because her aunt, Renu, has lived there for nearly 30 years.

“It just made sense,” said Parekh, whose mother died when she was 2 years old. “I was talking to his parents, and they were like, ‘Sure, let’s kill two birds with one stone. We’ll go on a safari and you guys get married.’’’

The trip to Africa also completed the circle for Parekh, who still remembers getting that phone call from Baylor while she was visiting her aunt.

“I had never even thought about (going to the U.S. to play college tennis),” said Parekh, part of the 2016 Baylor Hall of Fame class that will be honored during the Oct. 14-15 Homecoming weekend.

“I didn’t know where Baylor was, where Waco was. I had not looked into any schools or anything. Before Baylor, Miami had called me. They were probably just looking at the rankings, and I was No. 1 in India at the time. . . . When Baylor tracked me down in Africa, we just went from there.”

Title IX

• Baylor University on Friday named Doug Welch as chief compliance officer — a new position created out of a Pepper Hamilton LLP recommendation to better implement Title IX — according to a Baylor release. More at WacoTrib.

Welch has been Baylor’s associate general counsel since 2006.

The new role will help identify general compliance needs, assess effectiveness of existing systems, procedures and controls and create and deliver robust compliance training to ensure compliance, according to the release.

He will oversee development of a centralized compliance center of excellence to equip and support work in research, athletics, Equal Employment Opportunity, Title IX and Clery compliance, the statement said.

Welch will collaborate with administration, deans and department leaders to design policies to ensure compliance with federal and state statutory and regulatory standards, the release said, and he will implement effective checks and balances.

“Doug Welch is a highly qualified attorney with an expertise in the areas of compliance and higher education,” interim President David Garland said in a statement. “His leadership will enable the university to continue to make rapid progress on the recommendations and foster a culture of compliance throughout the university.”