Thursday September 2, 2010 6:06 PM Posted by staff
GAME CENTER: Matches 5-6-7
MEDIA INFORMATION
Date: Sept. 3-4, 2010
Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Arena: Sports Pavilion (5,700)
Internet Audio: www.BaylorBears.com
Internet Video: n/a
Talent: Todd Zeidler (pxp)
Live Stats: www.BaylorBears.com
THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE
- Baylor finished second in the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic going 2-1 with wins over Stephen F. Austin and Butler, with its lone loss coming in five sets against SMU. The Bears then traveled to UTSA on Wednesday, recording a 3-0 sweep of the Roadrunners and marking Baylor's third consecutive road win dating back to Nov. 25, 2009.
- Libero Caitlyn Trice was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for her efforts in Baylor's three weekend matches. The senior earned Baylor Classic Defensive MVP honors and leads the league with 100 digs and 6.67 digs per set. Trice's teammate Elizabeth Graham leads the Big 12 in blocks (31) and block per set (2.07). Baylor leads the league in both categories.
- With a win in its first match of the season, Baylor is now 6-1 under head coach Jim Barnes in season openers. In the Barnes era, Baylor dropped the opener his first season, but has won the first match each of the last six years. During his tenure at Baylor, Barnes has compiled an astonishing non-conference record of 62-14 (.816).
- Baylor's features a dynamically tall front line with 6-foot-3 Briana Tolbert and three 6-2 players, Elizabeth Graham, Ashley Byrd and Torri Campbell. Graham leads the Big 12 with 31 blocks (2.07 bps), while Tolbert is second with 19 blocks and fifth at 1.27 per set. All-told BU averages 3.00 per set for a total of 45.0 in just four matches.
- Against UTSA on Wednesday night, Torri Campbell accomplished one of the rarer feats in program history, serving four consecutive service aces at the beginning of the third set.
THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
MINNESOTA
- The No. 8 Golden Gophers, a 2009 NCAA Final Four team, opened the season with a 3-0 weekend, hosting the Minnesota Invitational?????? UM recorded a .410 hitting percentage in sweeps over Denver, Stony Brook, and Marquette. The Gophers feature for players that hit over .400 with at least 2.75 kills per set in the opening weekend. Tabi Love averaged 4.57 kps, while Ashley Wittman averaged 4.22. Stephanie Nucci quarterbacks the offense average 14.33 assists per set. On defense, Wittman averaged 2.89 digs per set and Lauren Gibbemeyer tallied 2.12 bps.
DAYTON
- Dayton opened the season as the host of the Flyer Classic. The Flyers swept Pitt and VCU, and also beat Arizona State in four sets. Four Dayton players record between 20 and 28 kills, led by Amanda Cowdrey's 28 in the first three matches. Jessica Yanz quarterbacked the offense to a .302 hitting percentage with 9.6 assists per set. Defensively, libero Paige Vargas recorded 38 digs for an average of 3.8 digs per set, while Lindsay Fletemier had 18 blocks for an average of 1.8 blocks per set.
NORTHERN IOWA
- UNI, ranked 22nd in the NCAA, return a host of veterans from an NCAA Tournament team. The Panthers have a balanced offense, producing six players that recorded between 15 and 30 kills in the first three matches. Dynamic setter Bre Payton is tied for the team lead in kills, while also averaging 8.91 assist per set. On defense, MVC libero of the year from 2009, Ellie Blankenship averages 3.45 digs per set and MB Krista DeGeest leads the squad in blocking at 1.27 bps.
Thursday September 2, 2010 6:01 PM Posted by staff
SAN ANTONIO - Baylor's volleyball team got 12 kills from Ashlie Christenson and 23 digs from Caitlyn Trice to take a sweep (25-19, 25-16, 25-17) in their first road match of the season at UTSA in San Antonio, Texas.
"This feels like a whole new team," head coach Jim Barnes said. "We really saw everyone step up and contribute, and that's what we were hoping for tonight."
Baylor struck first, setting the tone for the match with an 8-2 run to open the night. From that point, Baylor's defense controlled the play, while the offense stepped up with 38 kills and just eight errors. To go along with Christenson's 12 kills on the outside, Baylor's big front line put up spectacular numbers. Torri Campbell, Elizabeth Graham and Ashley Byrd combined for 20 kills and just two errors in 35 total attempts.
"I though Ashlie (Christenson) had a great night," Barnes said. "She really stepped up and played like a veteran tonight.
Campbell also helped the offense with her serving game, recorded five service aces, including a stretch of four in a row in the third set.
On defense, Trice, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, averaged over seven digs per set on her way to a total of 23. Up at the net, Graham led the way with six block assists, while Christenson and Briana Tolbert each added three assists.
For UTSA, Kendra Rowland led the way with 12 kills and five errors on 31 attempts, while Kelsey Schwirtlich had 24 assists and 13 digs. As a team, the Roadrunners hit .082 with 31 kills and 22 errors on 110 attempts.
In the first set, Baylor's early lead came on the strength of Christenson and Graham. The duo each recorded a kill, then back-to-back blocks on UTSA's Brittney Malloy and Whitney Walls. The Roadrunners showed signs of life, getting the score back to 12-11, but Christenson and Byrd recorded back-to-back spikes and Campbell notched her first service ace of the day for a 18-14 lead. Three UTSA errors and a kill by Campbell finished off the set 25-19.
The second started even with UTSA getting a Malloy kill to close within one, but Baylor didn't let them get that close again, opening up the lead with a 4-0 run to make the score 12-6, followed by a 5-1 stretch for a 19-12 lead. Byrd recorded two kills and Allison King had one. Down the stretch, Campbell and Christenson each put away two kills for a 25-16 lead.
At the start of the third set came Campbell's serving barrage. Christenson spiked the first kill, then Campbell forced an early UTSA timeout with four straight service aces, including two that tickled the top of the net. Graham and Christenson each added two more kills to make the score 9-1 and Baylor got a chance to give Zoe Adom and Qian Zhang some valuable playing time.
Zhang entered and served three in a row, ending in a service ace and a kill by Christenson. Adom entered with the Bears up 20-13 and promptly recorded a block assist with Graham and two kills on just four total attempts with no errors.
Baylor travels north for the weekend to take part in the Diet Coke Classic, hosted by the University of Minnesota on Sept. 3-4. The Bears will join Dayton and Northern Iowa. BU will take on the Minnesota on Friday at 8 p.m. Follow the action with live stats and live audio on www.BaylorBears.com.
GAME CENTER: Match 4
MEDIA INFORMATION
Date: Sept. 1, 2010
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Arena: Convocation Center (4,080)
Internet Audio: www.BaylorBears.com
Internet Video: n/a
Talent: Larry Little (pxp), Todd Zeidler (color)
Live Stats: www.BaylorBears.com
THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE
Baylor finished second in the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic going 2-1 with wins over Stephen F. Austin and Butler, with its lone loss coming in five sets against SMU. Libero Caitlyn Trice was named Defensive Most Valuable Player, while Ashlie Christenson and Elizabeth Graham each earned all-tournament honors.
- Libero Caitlyn Trice was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for her efforts in Baylor's three weekend matches. The senior record a total of 77 digs in 12 sets, with an average of 6.42 digs per set. She leads the Big 12 by a sound margin in both categories, having 20 more digs and a 1.04 higher average than any player in the Big 12 .
- With a win in its first match of the season, Baylor is now 6-1 under head coach Jim Barnes in season openers. In the Barnes era, Baylor dropped the opener his first season, but has won the first match each of the last six years. During his tenure at Baylor, Barnes has compiled an astonishing non-conference record of 61-14 (.813).
- Baylor's features one of the tallest front lines in the NCAA with 6-foot-3 Briana Tolbert and three 6-2 players, including Elizabeth Graham, Ashley Byrd and Torri Campbell. Graham leads the Big 12 with 25 blocks (2.08 bps), while Tolbert is second with 16 blocks and fifth at 1.33 per set. All-told BU averaged 3.08 per set for a total of 37.0 in just three matches.
-After averaging a Ferrell Center-record 815 fans per match in 2009, BU drew and average of 926 fans for its three matches over the weekend with a high of 963 in a 3-0 win over Butler.
THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
UTSA
The Roadrunners return 11 letterwinners, including preseason All-Southland Conference selections Whitney Walls (first team) and Kendra Rowland (second team), from last year's squad that posted a dozen wins against. Also back is 2008 Southland Libero of the Year Kelsey Jewasko, a junior who was an honorable mention all-conference choice as a sophomore.
UTSA is led by ninth-year head coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff, who has amassed a school-record 124 wins during her tenure. UTSA is coming off a 12-19 season, including a 7-9 mark in 2009. The Roadrunners finished sixth in the Southland Conference last season, and lost in the SLC Tournament Semifinals to Stephen F. Austin.
In its opening weekend of play, the Roadrunners beat Ole Miss in their season opener, but then suffered a five-set loss to tournament-host Rice and a four-set loss to Texas Tech. UTSA faced a 0-2 deficit to Ole Miss, but took the third set 34-32 to stay alive before winning the fourth and fifth, 25-17 and 20-18.
Baylor is 15-3 all-time against UTSA, which includes a current 12-match winning streak. BU beat the Roadrunners 3-0 in Waco last season.
IRVING, Texas - Senior libero Caitlyn Trice was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for her spectacular efforts in the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic over the weekend.
In her first career match at the libero position, Trice promptly posted career-high dig totals in her first two matches of the weekend, then added a solid third match to earn the tournament's Defensive Most Valuable Player honors.
In the season opener against Stephen F. Austin, Trice managed to record a then-career high 28 digs. That personal-best lasted less than 24 hours, as the team captain tallied 31 digs against SMU. Trice posted 16 more digs in a three-set sweep over Butler in the team's final match of the weekend.
With 77 digs in 12 sets, Trice's total was 20 higher than the next best in the Big 12, while her digs-per-set total of 6.42 is 1.04 higher than any individual in the conference. As a team, Baylor totaled 49 more digs and an average that is 2.68 digs per set more than any Big 12 team.
Trice's total of 28 digs against SFA marked the second-highest total in BU history for digs in a four-set match, while her total of 31 against SMU was the sixth-highest total in a five-set match.
The weekly honor is the first in Trice's career. She joins Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Lindsay Licht of Nebraska and Big 12 Rookie of the Week Molly Kreklow of Missouri.
Baylor will hit the road for its next four matches with stops in San Antonio, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minn. The Bears will take on the Roadrunners on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., then join Dayton and Northern Iowa in the Diet Coke Classic, hosted by the University of Minnesota on Sept. 3-4.
WACO, Texas - Baylor's volleyball team turned in a .315 hitting percentage, including 12 kills from senior Ashlie Christenson, to sweep Butler 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-17) in the final game of the Holiday Inn and Suites Baylor Classic at the Ferrell Center.
The Bears had to fight off a furious Bulldog team in the first set, then found their groove midway through the second set to defeat Butler handily. Allison King recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs to help the Bears hit a season-high .315 (50-11-124). Briana Tolbert, Ashley Byrd and Elizabeth Graham tallied seven kills each. Brittany Ridenour handed out 24 assists to lead the team, while Kate Harris added 17 helpers.
Baylor shined on defense in the final two sets, led by the back-row play of Caitlyn Trice and net play from Tolbert and Graham. Trice tallied 18 digs, bringing her three-match tournament total to 78, and earning her the tournament's Defensive Most Valuable Player award. Christenson and Graham were each named to the Baylor Classic All-Tournament team.
"Caitlyn Trice really stepped up this whole tournament," head coach Jim Barnes said. "We were really happy and proud of her. It was the first time for her playing libero, and she was just steady and provided great leadership. We are just really proud of the way she played."
Butler scored the first two points of the match, but Christenson and Tolbert each had two kills during a 4-2 Baylor run to retake the lead. With the block not quite developing yet for the Bears, Ridenour sparked the offense from her setter position spreading the ball around. She set up kills for Christenson, Graham, and King during a stretch to keep the BU lead at 17-14. Butler didn't die easily in the set, tying the score at 18, then taking a 22-20 lead on a solo block by Maureen Bamiro. Down 23-21, Baylor's versatility showed with a block by Campbell and Tolbert, then back-to-back kills by Campbell and King to win the set 26-24.
In the second set, Baylor opened up a 10-4 lead getting four block assists. Graham had a hand in three of them, while Tolbert was in on two. Graham added two more blocks midway through the set to push the score to 20-12 before kills by Byrd, Campbell and Tolbert set up Campbell's finishing service ace.
The third set was nearly a mirror image for the Bears, Graham had two blocks and three kills to help BU to a 10-5 lead, then Campbell followed a Byrd kill for a 16-10 lead. Christenson and King each recorded back-to-back spikes for a 24-17 lead and Harris ended the night with a service ace.
"If we are serving tough, we put teams on their heels and we are able to score at a high rate," Barnes said. "Our defense can be one of the best in the nation, but we have to serve tough to create those points."
Baylor (2-1) will have their first road match of the season on Wednesday, Sept. 1, when they take on the UTSA Roadrunners in San Antonio, Texas. The first serve is slated for 6:30 p.m.
