Daily Bears Report 11/3, Updated

Today’s Events

• Men's Tennis, vs Birmingham Futures, All Day
• Women's Tennis, vs UTSA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships, All Day

Tennis

• Senior Blair Shankle and sophomore Elizabeth Profit are set to compete with the nation's elite in the UTSA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 3-6 in New York, N.Y. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Both qualified for the tournament with winning regional performances.

"Having Blair and Liz qualify to compete at ITA Nationals with strong regional performances in singles and doubles is a step forward for them," Baylor head women's tennis coach Joey Scrivano said. "We know that they have the goods to beat anyone in college tennis and this week will give them plenty of opportunities to prove themselves."

Shankle went 6-0 in singles to win the ITA Texas Regional Championship and claim one of 32 spots nationals. The 54th-ranked player in the preseason, Shankle has played to an 8-1 record so far in fall action.

Shankle and Profit teamed up to record a 5-0 ITA Regional outing and secure an invitation to compete in the ITA Nationals doubles bracket. The undefeated duo is one of 20 pairs vying for the title.

Shankle kicks off singles action Thursday at 8 a.m. (CT) against Jessica Livianu of St. John's. Earning a first round bye, Shankle and Profit begin doubles action Thursday at 2:30 p.m. against Florida's Josie Kuhlman and Belinda Woolcock. Links to UTSA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championship live scoring and the live stream is available on the women's tennis schedule page at www.baylorbears.com.

Immediately following the UTSA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championship, Baylor hosts the Bush's $50,000 Waco Showdown on Nov. 6-13 at Hurd Tennis Center.

The eight-day tournament begins with 32-player qualifying rounds for singles on Nov. 6-8. Following qualifying rounds, 32-player main draw singles and 16-team main draw doubles will be played on Nov. 8-13.

Five Bears are featured in the tournament, including Shankle in main draw singles, and freshman Jessica Hinojosa, junior Theresa Van Zyl and senior Rhiann Newborn in singles qualifying rounds. Shankle and Profit also pair up for main draw doubles.

• Former Baylor All-American John Peers and doubles partner Henri Kontinen will make their team debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals next month. From Baylor Bears dot com courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com.

The Finn/Aussie pairing became the seventh doubles team to qualify for the year-end championships on Monday with a 6-2, 6-2 rout against Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

“We knew what we had to do and it was good to be able to do it,” Peers said.

Kontinen/Peers converted all four break points and erased the only two break points they faced in the 46-minute victory. On Wednesday, the duo defeated seventh seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram, 6-4 7-6(4), in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

Kontinen/Peers have raced to three ATP World Tour titles this year, ending the week with smiles in Hamburg, Munich and Brisbane. They also finished runners-up at the Shanghai Rolex Masters and are going for their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament title this week in France.

Kontinen has never played at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held 13-20 Nov. at The O2 in London. He will also become the first Finn to compete at the season finale. Peers played at the event last season with Jamie Murray. The top eight doubles teams at the end of this week will qualify for the season finale.

“London is the biggest tournament – the top eight teams in the world,” Peers said. “It was definitely our goal to be able to make The O2.”

In one season at Baylor, Peers racked up a 38-6 mark in doubles play, while being named All-Big 12 in singles and doubles. He partnered with Roberto Maytin to be an ITA All-American in doubles. The duo finished the season ranked No. 5 in the country and advanced to the NCAA Championship quarterfinals.

Soccer

• No. 3 seed Baylor soccer earned a 1-0 win over No. 6 seed Oklahoma State in the first round of the 2016 Big 12 Soccer Championship on Wednesday night at Swope Soccer Village. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The Bears (12-6-1) used a penalty kick by Aline De Lima to take down the Cowgirls (9-8-3) to advance to face TCU in the semifinals on Friday.

Early on, the Bears had a few good chances and a near own goal by OSU. But the game-changing play came on a run in the box by Lauren Piercy in which she was fouled hard to earn a penalty kick in the 21st minute. The kick was taken by De Lima and beat the goalkeeper to the left for a 1-0 lead that stood.

A little help was needed to keep the lead, though. BU keeper Sara Martinson had a diving save in the first half but the closest call came on a corner kick that led to a header in the 64th minute. Martinson tipped the ball off the crossbar, then bobbled it as the ball came right back down to her and she was able to secure it after bobbling the ball around heavy traffic at the net.

Baylor has won at least one match in the Big 12 Championship nine times in 14 appearances and has done so five years in a row.

Junior transfer midfielder Aline De Lima scored her fourth goal of the season for her eighth point on her first career penalty kick attempt -- the goal was her second game-winner of the season, which also came against Oklahoma State in the regular season on Sept. 25 in overtime.

Junior goalkeeper Sara Martinson earned her 11th win of the season and 20th of her career -- she now ranks tied for seventh on BU's single season wins list.

Martinson posted her sixth shutout of the season and 11th of her career -- she now ranks tied for eighth on BU's single season shutouts list and fourth in career shutouts.

"I'm very proud of the effort tonight and getting the result we wanted. It was tough match, especially with the delay, but we've had a few of those this year already and our girls knew exactly how to handle it. We came out sharp, earned an early penalty kick that Aline De Lima was able to put away and kept the pressure on all game. We'll enjoy this for a few minutes and turn our focus to recovery and preparing for TCU on Friday night." -- Head Coach Paul Jobson.

Baylor faces No. 7 seed TCU on Friday at 7 p.m. CT in the semifinals of the 2016 Big 12 Soccer Championship at Swope Soccer Village.

Volleyball

• Baylor volleyball (19-7, 7-3 Big 12) rolled through the Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-16, 0-11 Big 12), 25-19, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22, Wednesday evening at the United Supermarkets Arena. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The win marks the fifth-straight for BU over TTU, giving the Bears a season sweep over the Red Raiders for the second-straight season.

BU picked up its seventh conference win, marking the first time since the 2012 season that the program has recorded seven Big 12 wins.

On a record-night for the Bears, redshirt junior Katie Staiger notched 31 kills, becoming the 14th player in program history to notch 30-plus kills, the first since Tisha Schwartz at Iowa State on Oct. 5, 2002.

Jana Brusek posted a phenomenal defensive effort from the libero position, with her 32 digs setting a new Baylor record for the most digs in a four-set match.

The Baylor squad was able to pull ahead late in the first, hitting at a punishing .417 clip. BU closed the set on a 3-0 run, with kills from Staiger and Aniah Philo, and a block from Nicole Thomas and Philo.

BU didn’t slow much in the second frame, lifted by 12 kills from Staiger. BU cruised to a 25-20 set win, taking a 2-0 lead in the match.

After hitting .417 in the first and .300 in the second, the Bears were held to a .019 hitting mark in the third, with TTU pulling away late, taking set three, 25-21.

In the fourth, the Bears led by as many as six, but had the lead cut back to two at 21-19 and again at 24-22.

BU was able to close out the match in four, using a TTU setting error to clinch the 25-22 fourth set and the 3-1 match.

“I was happy to see some good individual performances. Katie gets over 30 kills and Jana did a great job for us defensively. It’s good to see Nicole hitting well and getting more kills. Overall, offensively I thought we did some good things. Defensively, we really struggled. For the first time, our offense really carried us at times tonight. Glad we went four sets without an ace. That just helps feed into our offensive numbers.” –Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre.

High Flying Bears

Football

• BearsExtra’s Brice Cherry says the Baylor offensive linemen are confident they can fix QB protection breakdown. WacoTrib has the full story.

As Baylor learned the hard way last year, its offense runs more smoothly when it keeps its quarterback safe and upright.

Seth Russell has, for the most part, stayed out of harm’s way this year. Through the first six games of the season, the Baylor offensive line surrendered just four sacks.

But things went sideways in a hurry in the Bears’ 35-34 loss to Texas last weekend. The Longhorns cranked up the pressure and dumped Russell for six sacks in the game, more than he’d been hit all year.

Did the Baylor offensive line just suffer a bad game? Did the Texas defense turn in its best performance of the year? Is it a sign of concern for the Bears going forward?

The answers are more complicated than simple yeses and nos.

HOW TO COOK LIZZARD

You can cook lizards like small fish. Peel the skin, gut normally, cut off the legs, anus, tail and head, rub with salt, stuff with mango, then fry in a light butter of your choice or

roast over an open flame.

Serve with dead lizard cocktail: (one ounce of vodka, one ounce of raspberry juice, one teaspoon of sugar and two ounces of coca cola served in a Old-Fashioned Glass).

Enjoy with friends, family or fellow tailgaters.

Grilled Frog Legs

Ingredients: 11 pairs of frog legs; 1 cup vegetable oil; 1 lemon; 1 Tbsp minced red onion; 2 tsp salt; 2 tsp dried basil leaves; 2 tsp dry mustard;4 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley; 1/2 cup butter or margarine; 2 finely minced garlic cloves.

Mix the vegetable oil, onion, parsley, salt, mustard, and basil in a small bowl. Also add the peel and juice of one lemon. Stir or whisk well to combine.

Pour 1/3 cup (80 ml) of the marinade into a small dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Set this portion aside for a later step.

Place the frog legs in a single layer inside a baking dish. Pour the remaining marinade over the legs and cover will plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

The frog legs must be in a single layer. Otherwise, they may not marinate evenly.

Use tongs to occasionally turn the frog legs in the marinade as they sit in the refrigerator.

Brush the grill with additional vegetable oil and preheat it to medium heat.

If using a gas grill, preheat all the burners of the grill to a medium setting.

If using a charcoal grill, lay two layers or so of charcoal briquettes along the bottom of the grill. Light and let the flame burn away until a light layer of ash forms on the charcoal.

Drain the frog legs and transfer them to the hot grill. Cover the grill and cook for 3 minutes. Turn them over and close the grill again, cooking for another 3 to 4 minutes.

There should be no further traces of pink meat when the legs have finished cooking. Additionally, the meat should begin to separate from the bones will little effort once done.

Heat the reserved marinade with the butter and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter is melted, stirring often.

This should take about 1 or 2 minutes.

Transfer the frog legs to a serving plate and drizzle the butter mixture over or around them.

Sic TCU

• KaVontae Turpin is not 100 percent in his recovery from a knee injury, but he has given the offense a lift and should get a larger role this week against Baylor, TCU coach Gary Patterson said. From StarTelegram.

“I think you saw a little bit more spirit with Turpin back,” Patterson said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “He’s not completely healthy, but he’s closer. I think you’ll keep seeing him have more and more game plan that goes with him.”

Patty Crawford

• Patty Crawford is ready for the public dispute with Baylor to end. Full story @ WacoTrib.

As former Baylor University Title IX Coordinator Patty Crawford and the school continue a public dispute, Crawford and her attorney said Wednesday they are ready to move on.

“The only plan I have is to talk with media today to give the perspective of what really happened, I think,” Crawford said.

She said she does not want to engage in mud-throwing and hopes Baylor devotes the proper resources to helping sexual assault victims.