Daily Bears Report 9/14

Today’s Event - Volleyball

The Bears take on the LSU Tigers today in Baton Rouge. The volleyball match will be broadcast on ESPN/SEC Network at 7:00 p.m. CT. From Baylor Bears dot com.

BU finished 2-1 at the Seminole Invitational in Tallahassee last weekend, dropping a five-set thriller with No. 13 Florida State before bouncing back with a sweep on the final day over Little Rock and Florida A&M.

For LSU, the Tigers snapped a four-match losing streak entering last weekend’s UCF Classic, sweeping the weekend’s competitions with Seattle, UCF, and Florida Atlantic.

LSU holds a 5-2 advantage in the all-time series with Baylor, with the Tigers taking the last three matchups. Most recently, the two squads faced each other twice at the UTSA Tournament in 2014, with LSU winning in four and five sets over the two days of the tournament.

Fans can listen to Baylor’s internet radio stream on this and all other Baylor road trips at BaylorBears.com/allaccess.

Yesterday’s Baylor Athletics Update

Women’s Golf

Baylor women's golf took third place in the Dick McGuire Invitational after shooting 5-under-par 283 in Tuesday's final round at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course. BU finished at 10-under-par 854, 10 strokes back of Arizona State (-20) and one shot back of Oklahoma State (-11). From Baylor Bears dot com.

Sophomore Maria Vesga and freshman Fiona Liddell both carded 54-hole scores of 4-under 212 to finish tied for 11th place individually. Vesga shot 3-under 69 in her second round and 2-over 74 in her final round, while Liddell shot even-par 72 in the second round and 3-under 69 in the final round, recording all three rounds of the tournament at par or better.

Redshirt sophomore Dylan Kim tied for 17th place at 1-under 215 after shooting 4-over 76 in the second round and 3-under 69 in the final round. Freshman Evelyn Arguelles tied for 25th place at 1-over 217 following a second round 72 and a final round 71. Senior Maggie Beth Byers tied for 59th place at 8-over 224, and junior USC transfer Amy Lee, who was competing as an individual, recorded a team-best ninth place finish at 6-under 210 following a second round 6-under 66 and a final round 2-under 70.

Women’s Tennis

Senior Blair Shankle and junior Theresa Van Zyl were listed in the 2016 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Women’s Division I preseason rankings, released on Tuesday. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Shankle earned a No. 54 singles rating, and teamed up with Van Zyl for a No. 44 doubles ranking.

Shankle closed the 2015-16 campaign ranked No. 75 after producing a 16-6 record overall in singles competition. The 2015 All-Big 12 honoree in singles and doubles led the Bears in dual-match singles wins, compiling a 5-5 mark against ranked opponents.

Shankle, a two-time ITA All-American in doubles, reached the second round of the 2016 NCAA Doubles Championship with Kiah Generette. The duo posted a 17-8 record last season, including a 7-6 record against ranked foes.

For the 2016-17 season, Shankle and Van Zyl will pair up for doubles competition. Van Zyl played to a 17-13 singles record and compiled a 14-13 doubles record with seven different partners last year.

Baylor kicks off its fall slate with the Bush’s $50,000 Waco Showdown Wildcard at the Hurd Tennis Center on Sept. 16-18. Stay tuned for more details on this weekend’s competition.

Baylor Lady Bears

The six-time defending Big 12 champion Baylor women’s basketball team will have 13 games broadcast by FOX Sports networks during the 2016-17 regular season, the Big 12 Conference office announced Tuesday morning. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The Lady Bears open televised action on Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. (CT) against UCLA on Fox Sports Plus (FS+) and continue their schedule with a Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. broadcast against Abilene Christian on FOX College Sports (FCS). After facing Winthrop on FS+ on Dec. 15 at 12 p.m., Baylor’s Big 12 opener against Kansas State on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. will air on FS+.

Baylor has five televised contests in January, beginning on Jan. 1 at 2 p.m. against Kansas on Fox Sports Southwest (FSSW). The schedule continues with the team’s 6 p.m. game on Jan. 4 at West Virginia on FS2, 7 p.m. contest on Jan. 11 against TCU on FSSW, 7 p.m. competition on Jan. 18 against Iowa State on FS+, and 1 p.m. game on Jan. 21 against West Virginia on FOX Sports Regional Networks (FSN).

On Feb. 6 at 7 p.m., Baylor’s intrastate clash against Texas will air nationally on FS1 followed by the program’s 5 p.m. contest on Feb. 18 against Oklahoma State on FS+ and 12 p.m. game on Feb. 25 against Texas Tech on FSSW.

The Lady Bears play their final game of the regular season at Oklahoma on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m., which will air nationally on FS1.

FOX Sports networks will also carry all nine Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship matchups for the fourth-straight year. First round contests will appear on FCS, while quarterfinal games will air on FSN. The semifinals and final will have a national audience for the fourth consecutive season on FS1.

BaylorVision

Baylor Football

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

No. 21 Baylor not taking Rice for granted. Fox Sports and Stats LLC has this story.

The No. 21 Baylor Bears are more than a four touchdown favorite to start 3-0 for the seventh straight season when they travel to Rice Stadium in Houston to take on the Rice Owls on Friday night. But even though the Bears buried the currently winless Owls 70-17 last year in Waco, interim head coach Jim Grobe is stressing to his team to not take anything for granted.

Grobe pointed out to his squad what happened to two fellow Big 12 teams, then-No. 22 Oklahoma State (30-27 home loss to Central Michigan) and No. 15 TCU (41-38 double overtime loss to Arkansas) over the weekend. And he believes the Owls (0-2) will be fired up to play a ranked team at home for the first time since 1997 when No. 21 BYU visited Rice Stadium.

"First and foremost, I hope that's a wakeup call to our players," Grobe said. "If you don't go out and play good football, there's a good chance you're not going to come out a winner. Whether they're ranked or not, be ready to play."

Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Baylor receivers are still learning the art of the perfect routes. Bryce Cherry with Bears Extra has this story.

Following the game, Baylor coach Jim Grobe didn’t put all of the incompletions at the feet of Russell. Grobe expected that film review would reveal that the receivers ran ragged routes on certain plays.

Sure enough, this week Grobe said that the film indeed showed that problem, among others.

“With all young guys, not just the receiver position but all the young guys, (they) tend to make mistakes, and you’ve just got to keep teaching,” Grobe said. “I think (receivers coach) Tate Wallis sometimes was concerned about us, sometimes our splits weren’t good.

“That throws routes off — if your splits are a little tighter or a little wider than you want them to be, now they’re not necessarily in the area that the quarterback thinks they’re going to be.”

Running a crisp, proper route seems to be a subtle art, and it’s an ongoing education for Baylor’s young receivers. Several of the Bears’ wideouts are in their first seasons of extensive playing time — among them Devontre “Pooh” Stricklin, Chris Platt, Blake Lynch and Denzel Mims.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Campus Insiders has this prediction and preview of Baylor’s upcoming game at Rice.

While all the other top-flight Big 12 teams keep falling around them - looking at you Oklahoma, TCU and Oklahoma State - the Baylor Bears have kept on chooglin'. All thoughts that the offense would take a hit without Art Briles on the sideline have been erased. Through two weeks it looks like status quo down in Waco.

Across the way in Houston, it's been quite the opposite for Rice. The Owls have had their doors blown off in the season's first two weeks, and are, unfortunately, staring down the barrel of a turkey.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

BleacherReport brings us the betting odds.

The Baylor Bears are often big favorites, and incredibly they've made some great money over recent seasons as such. In 17 spots favored by four touchdowns or more over the last three years, Baylor is 13-3-1 against the spread.

The Bears face another huge number when they visit former rival Rice on Friday night in Houston.