Daily Bears Report 9/29

Volleyball

Baylor volleyball (14-4, 2-0 Big 12) earned its 10th-straight win of the 2016 season with a 3-0 sweep over conference foe Texas Tech (10-8, 0-3 Big 12), 25-17, 26-24, 25-19, Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center. Baylor Bears dot com has the story, highlights and Stat of the Day.

The 10-match streak is the first since the 2009 season, where the Bears advanced to the NCAA Round of 16. The win was Baylor's 22nd win in 24 matches against the Red Raiders, including four in a row.

Sophomore Ashley Fritcher got the Bears out to a fast start in set one, hitting 1.000 (3-for-3). A 5-0 run behind redshirt junior Katie Staiger's serve pushed the Bears into a comfortable lead that would give BU a dominant 25-17 first-set win.

Baylor played from behind most of the second set after registering eight attack errors in the frame. The Bears then fought off two set points and used a block to take set two in extra points, 26-24.

BU jumped out to an early 5-2 advantage in the third set, and would never trail en route to the 25-19 third-set win for the sweep.

"I liked how we served tonight. I thought overall we struggled a little bit. It wasn't very clean, but six aces on one error, that was the point of focus for us in practice this week so Jana and Katie I thought did a great job. Jana especially [with] three aces, but I felt every time she served we took them out of system and helped our blocking defense set up what we wanted to do there." - Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre.

Baylor puts its Big 12-best 10-match winning streak on the line as it heads to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks Saturday at 1 p.m. The Big 12 matchup will air on ESPN3.

WacoTrib’s Brice Cherry has more in this BearsExtra story.

Baylor battered Texas Tech with a steady onslaught of screaming spikes and serves in taking a 25-17, 26-24, 25-19 victory, the program’s 10th straight win. It’s the first 10-match winning streak for Baylor since the Bears won their first 11 matches of the season of the 2009 season.

Baylor delivered some particularly sharp serves, coming up with six aces and only one service error. Jana Brusek and Katie Staiger produced three aces apiece, in extremely varied fashions. Brusek deploys more floaters and relies on the pre-serve placement that second-year coach Ryan McGuyre signals, while Staiger fires off scud topspin-sizzling missiles with a high-arcing jump serve.

Emoji Favorites of Baylor Cross Country

Have you ever wondered what the runners talk about while running those long races? Now you know.

Who Collects Game Day Statistics?

Kennedy Dendy and the Game Day Stats Crew

Football

In yet another article from Brice Cherry, BearsExtra takes a look at Baylor’s tight ends and calls them Baylor’s secret weapon.

As with any offensive game plan, it’s all about keeping the defense guessing. Baylor may look to fling the ball to their wide receivers or gash the defense with their running backs 97 percent of the time, but such constant repetition can set the stage for the tight end to steal the spotlight when he gets his chance at a cameo.

Player and coach quotes from Brice’s article:

“If we can continue to do a good job running the football, then that inside run fake with a dump to the tight end can be more than a 5 or 10-yard gain,” Baylor acting coach Jim Grobe said. “It can turn out to be a better play for us even than we hoped. I hope that we can continue to do that, because we’ve got not just Jordan, but I think a couple of our tight ends can catch the football. So that gives us another threat and gives Seth (Russell) another option as far as throwing the ball.”

“It’s always been in the arsenal. I guess we haven’t always attacked it much,” Russell said. “It could throw a hiccup in the defense real quick. … It’s a quick hit, a pretty quick first down most of the time. We like to save it if we can. If we have to use it, we will. If we need some quick hits to keep the momentum going, that’s what we’ll normally go to.”

“I felt like I wanted to be a part of the best offense in the nation,” Feuerbacher said. “And to be a part of that really meant a lot to me.”

Football Coaching Search

New Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades is excited about the football team’s 4-0 start, but is also keeping a keen eye on potential coaching candidates across the country. From the WacoTrib.

While Rhoades won’t comment on specific candidates, he believes Baylor is still an attractive head coaching job even after the sexual assault scandal.

“Coach Briles proved you can win here,” Rhoades said. “I certainly think the resources, where we’re located, and the conference we play in, all of those things are attractive. I do believe and I’ve said this to a lot of different people, I know our best days lie ahead for football and for all of our sports programs.”

“We have a brand in terms of the way we play, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Rhoades said. “I doubt if we’re going to bring anybody in here who runs the triple option.”

While hiring a candidate with head coaching is preferable, Rhoades said he won’t rule out an assistant coach who appears ready to step into a head coaching role. Rhoades will place great importance on finding a head coach with a staff that will heavily recruit Texas high schools.

“Obviously the state of Texas is important, so whether that’s the head coach or the staff they put together that’s certainly imperative,” Rhoades said.

Rhoades said he will speak with Baylor interim coach Jim Grobe at some point this fall about the direction of the football program beyond the 2016 season. But regardless of who coaches the program in the future, Rhoades would like to maintain the dynamic up-tempo offensive style that has become the Bears’ trademark.

Night Out with the Baylor Police Department

Note: This is not a sport. It is, however, an essential part of sports and campus safety.

The Baylor University Police Department (BUPD) is hosting its first National Night Out event, #BUNightOut, for the Baylor residential community at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, on Fountain Mall. Baylor dot edu has the schedule of events and exhibits.

National Night Out, an annual nationwide community-building campaign, was developed to promote police-community partnerships. The Baylor campus community will join other communities throughout Texas that evening to focus on building safer neighborhoods and developing relationships with local law enforcement. BUPD’s National Night Out event is catered to the Baylor residential community to promote overall campus safety and crime prevention.

“This event is an opportunity for the Baylor Family to come together and build a good foundation of safety measures to incorporate into their daily lives. As we gather and support one another, there will be information available on important topics such as alcohol awareness, texting and driving and bike safety,” said Crime Prevention Officer Kandy Knowles, who helped organize the event.

“We wanted our students to educate themselves on these vital topics, but do it in a way that reinforces community. My primary focus was for the students to enjoy learning about safety, so of course, we wanted to make it fun. All who attend are essentially taking a stand against crime and all it entails, and we in the Department of Public Safety (DPS) want to support them in any way possible,” Knowles said.