Nov. 12, 2002

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BAYLOR at TEXAS TECH
7:00 p.m. CST
Nov. 13, 2002
United Spirit Arena
Lubbock, Texas

Baylor stays on the road Wednesday, traveling to Lubbock, Texas, for a 7 p.m. CST match at Texas Tech. The Bears (9-16, 2-12) are coming off a 30-25, 30-15, 30-16 loss last Saturday at then-No. 25 Kansas State. The Red Raiders (10-13, 5-9) have won two straight, including a 30-21, 30-26, 30-18 victory last Saturday at Oklahoma. Baylor won the first meeting this season, defeating Texas Tech in three games Oct. 9 in Waco. Live score updates for the match will be available online at www.BaylorBears.com, the official website of Baylor Athletics and a member of the Official College Sports Network.

QUICK NOTES
* Baylor and Texas Tech meet for the 50th time Wednesday. The Red Raiders lead the all-time series 41-8. Baylor is 1-22 all-time at Lubbock.

* Since moving to the outside hitter position Sept. 26, junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz has averaged 5.74 kills, 2.59 digs and 0.51 blocks per game.

* Freshman S Emily Huston has recorded at least one service ace in six straight matches.

* Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz needs 11 kills to move into 10th place on Baylor's all-time single-season kills chart.

* Baylor has tallied at least one service ace in 58 consecutive matches and at least two service aces in 27 straight matches.

* Baylor has played just three matches this season without at least one starter out due to injury.

HEAD COACH BRIAN HOSFELD
Baylor is in its seventh season under the direction of head coach Brian Hosfeld. During his tenure, the Bears have compiled a 117-105 (.527) overall record and a 51-83 (.381) mark in the rugged Big 12 Conference.

Hosfeld is credited with putting Baylor volleyball on the map. After losing seasons in 14 of 18 seasons prior to Hosfeld's arrival, Baylor has finished above .500 in four of the last six seasons. Baylor has made two NCAA Tournament appearances in that time, advancing to the second round before losing to eventual national champion Penn State in 1999.

Owner of the highest winning percentage of the program's seven head coaches, Hosfeld has amassed the most wins, both overall and in conference play, of any coach in school history.

HOSFELD vs. TEXAS TECH
Head coach Brian Hosfeld is 4-9 during his career against Texas Tech. He is the only Baylor coach to have ever defeated the Red Raiders more than twice. Hosfeld-coached Baylor teams are 3-4 against Texas Tech in Waco and 1-5 at Lubbock.

LAST TIME OUT - No. 25 KANSAS STATE 3, BAYLOR 0
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Baylor volleyball fell victim to one of the nation's hottest teams as No. 25 Kansas State won its 11th consecutive match, defeating the Bears 30-25, 30-15, 30-16.

Tisha Schwartz led the Bears with 10 kills, the 11th straight match in which she has reached double figures in kills. However, Kansas State also forced Schwartz into nine attacking errors and held her to a .021 attacking percentage on the afternoon. Laura Daniela Lloreda added six kills and a team-best 10 digs, and Jillian Mazzarella had five kills and 11 assists.

Kansas State held Baylor to a .054 attacking percentage, the fifth straight match in which the Wildcats have held their opponent under .100. Meanwhile, K-State hit .293 as a team, swinging at a .333 clip (32-8-72) over the final two games. Lauren Goehring led four Wildcats with at least eight kills, putting 10 attacks on the floor.

Baylor controlled game one early, leading by as much as four on two occasions and by five points at 15-10. However, Kansas State scored 10 of the next 12 points and never trailed again. The Bears closed to within one point at 24-23, but a Kansas State timeout ended a three-point Baylor run. Schwartz tallied seven kills in the opener, but hit just .176 with four errors. Neither offense was on track in the first game as Baylor hit .205 and Kansas State hit .227.

Kansas State jumped out to a 5-1 lead early in game two before the Bears closed to within one point at 6-5. The Wildcats scored 12 of the next 14 points, though, and never looked back. K-State's offense came alive in game two, hitting .316 (16-4-38) as a team. Meanwhile, Baylor's attack slipped considerably as the Bears were held to a minus-.026 attacking percentage. Schwartz had just one kill in game two, and Jillian Mazzarella led Baylor with three kills.

The momentum K-State built in game two carried over to game three. Baylor was within three points at 12-9, but the Wildcats scored the next seven points and never looked back. Kansas State hit .353 (16-4-34) in game three and held Baylor under .000 again at minus-.030 (7-8-33).

THE TEXAS TECH SERIES
This is the 50th meeting between Baylor and Texas Tech with the Red Raiders holding a commanding 41-8 lead in the series. Since both teams joined the Big 12 Conference in 1996, Texas Tech has won nine of 13 meetings. The Bears won both meetings in 1999, the only time in the history of the series that Baylor took two matches from TTU in the same season. Baylor won the first meeting this season 30-25, 30-24, 30-26 in Waco. The Bears' only other wins in the series came in 1994, 1993, 1988 and 1978, the last of which was the first meeting in the series. Tech won the series last year, winning in five games at both venues. Ironically, in the eight matches won by the Bears, Texas Tech has taken just three games. There have been just four five-game matches in the series. Baylor is 1-22 all-time at Lubbock.

THE TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS
Texas Tech (10-13, 5-9) is in its seventh season under the direction of head coach Jeff Nelson. He is 162-94 in his career, all coming at Texas Tech.

TTU Notes: The Red Raiders are 3-2 in their last five matches, including 3-0 wins over Kansas and at Oklahoma in their last two matches. Tech has defeated one ranked team this season, knocking off then-No. 21 Missouri Oct. 5. ... The Raiders hit .220 as a team, holding opponents to a .206 clip. Tech averages 15.96 kills, 1.60 service aces, 14.83 digs and 1.75 blocks per game. One of the best passing teams in the conference, the Raiders have allowed just 79 service aces this year for an average of 0.95 per game. ... Texas Tech offers a balanced offensive attack with sophomore OH Kelly Johnson and senior OH Melissa McGehee. Johnson leads the Big 12 with 4.86 kills per game, just ahead of Baylor's Tisha Schwartz. McGehee averages 3.63 kills per game. Johnson is also the Red Raiders' top serving threat; she averages 0.46 service aces per game, fourth in the Big 12. Sophomore L Jessy Herrera is fourth in the conference with 3.36 digs per game. ... Herrera was a high school teammate of Baylor's Kara Kennedy at Canyon HS in New Braunfels, Texas.

LAST MEETING - BAYLOR 3, TEXAS TECH 0 (OCT. 9, 2002)
WACO, Texas - Tisha Schwartz put away 21 kills and collected a career-high 17 digs to lead Baylor past Texas Tech 30-25, 30-24, 30-26.

Baylor came out on fire offensively, hitting .395 in game one and holding the Red Raiders to a .238 clip. Schwartz hit .429 (6-0-14) in the opener, while Kelly Spriggs hit .500 (6-1-10). Trailing 16-15, Baylor scored nine of the next 13 points to take control of the game. Tech pulled to within one point at 26-25, but three Raider attack errors and a Schwartz kill put the game away.

The Bears built an early lead in game two and then withstood a furious Raider rally late in the game. Baylor led by as much as 10 points on five occasions, including a 25-15 edge. That's when Tech charged back, scoring nine of the next 12 points to pull close at 27-25. But that was as close as Tech could get. Schwartz put a kill on the floor and then joined Alison Heffner on a block to end the game.

Baylor had to battle from behind in the third game, falling behind early at 6-1. The Bears finally pulled even at 13-13 but later found themselves behind at 23-21. From there, Baylor scored five of the next seven points and took control of the game. Schwartz finished the game with her 21st kill of the night.

Heffner led all players with six blocks, establishing a career high and leading the Bears to 10.0 blocks as a team. Emily Huston added four blocks, while Schwartz and Stella Odion had three each. Spriggs finished with 11 kills and hit .333 on the night; Schwartz hit .390 on the evening and finished with 23.5 points.

WEDNESDAY WOES
Baylor has lost four consecutive Wednesday matches since defeating Texas Tech in three games Oct. 9 in Waco. In fact, that is the Bears' only Wednesday victory this season. Baylor is 4-12 on Wednesdays since the beginning of last season. The Bears have not won a road Wednesday match since a four-game victory Nov. 8, 2000 at Oklahoma.

SCHWARTZ NEARS SEASON KILLS TOP 10
Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz enters Wednesday's match at Texas Tech just 11 kills shy of cracking Baylor's top 10 for kills in a season. She currently has 405, just shy of 10th-place Jenny DeLue (416, 1992). Since moving to the outside Sept. 26, Schwartz has averaged 5.74 kills per game. Even if Baylor plays only three games in each of its remaining seven matches, Schwartz is on pace to finish the year with 516 kills. That would rank seventh all-time at Baylor. Her current average of 4.71 kills per game would rank fifth in school history behind only Stevie Nicholas (5.68, 2000; 5.33, 2001) and Elisha Polk (5.21, 1998; 5.07, 1997).

OTHER IMPRESSIVE SCHWARTZ STATS
Schwartz has tallied at least 10 kills in all but three matches this season. In those three matches, she had nine kills twice and seven kills once. Schwartz has reached the 10-kill plateau in each of the last 11 matches, the longest stretch of her career. She has also tallied 20 or more kills eight times this season. ... Schwartz has produced at least 10.0 points in all but one match this season (8.5 at Long Beach State) and in each of the last 22 matches. She has reached the 20.0-point plateau eight times and the 30.0-point level twice.

HUSTON ENJOYS A FEW STREAKS, AS WELL
Freshman S Emily Huston averages just 1.04 kills per game, but she has been consistent. The Santa Rosa, Calif., native as produced at least one kill in all 25 matches this season, including a career-best nine Sept. 7 against Texas-Arlington. She has also blocked at least one ball in all but two matches this year, and she is currently riding a streak of six consecutive matches with at least one service ace.

BAYLOR IN THE BIG 12 STATISTICAL RANKINGS
Baylor finds itself in unusual territory statistically this season - not among the league leaders in kills and digs per game. The Bears have finished third or better in kills per game and fifth or better in digs per game in the Big 12 Conference in each of the past three seasons. According to the Nov. 11 statistical rankings, Baylor is ninth in kills per game (14.50) and 10th in digs per game (14.31). The Bears are fourth in the conference with 1.80 service aces per game. However, Baylor ranks ninth in attacking percentage (.204), ninth in assists (13.08), 10th in blocks (1.92) and 11th in opponents' attacking percentage (.255).

SCHWARTZ AMONG TOP BIG 12 OFFENSIVE THREAT
Junior OH Tisha Schwartz has become one of the top scoring threat in the Big 12 Conference. According to the Nov. 11 rankings, Schwartz is second in kills (4.71 per game) and second in points (5.43 per game). She is also second in Big 12 matches with 5.23 kills and 5.60 points per game in league play.

BAYLOR WINS 17TH IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT
With team titles at the Baylor Classic and at the Rhode Island Classic, Baylor has claimed the program's 16th and 17th in-season tournament titles. Eleven of those titles have come during head coach Brian Hosfeld's tenure (since 1996). The Bears have won at least one in-season tournament in six of Hosfeld's seven seasons, claiming two such titles five times.

THREE BEARS EARN URI CLASSIC HONORS
Baylor juniors OH Stevie Nicholas, MB Tisha Schwartz and OH Lisa Smith were named to the all-tournament team at the Rhode Island Classic. Nicholas was selected as MVP, marking the fifth time in her career she has been named MVP at an in-season tournament. On the weekend, Nicholas hit .316 with 5.25 kills and 2.58 service aces per game and 12 service aces. Schwartz, meanwhile, averaged 4.50 kills per game on the weekend; she also hit at a .406 clip with 11 blocks and five service aces. Smith averaged 2.50 kills and 2.36 digs per game with two double-doubles on the weekend.

FOUR BEARS EARN BAYLOR CLASSIC HONORS
Junior OH Stevie Nicholas, junior MB Tisha Schwartz, sophomore S/DS Jillian Mazzarella and freshman S Emily Huston all earned all-tournament honors at the 2002 Baylor Classic. Nicholas and Schwartz were named co-MVPs. Nicholas averaged 5.10 kills, 1.10 service aces, 3.70 digs and 0.90 blocks per game on the weekend, totaling 67.5 points. Schwartz finished the weekend with 52.0 points and per-game averages of 4.00 kills, 1.60 digs and 1.50 blocks. Huston and Mazzarella paced the Bear offense to a .249 attacking percentage and 16.60 kills per game. Huston hit .600 for the weekend (20-2-30) with 2.00 kills, 5.90 assists, 1.70 digs and 0.60 blocks per game. Mazzarella hit .345 on the weekend (12-2-29) with 1.20 kills, 7.30 assists, 3.90 digs and 0.50 blocks per game.

BAYLORBEARS.COM
Baylor's official athletic web site can be found at www.BaylorBears.com. The comprehensive site, which includes releases, photos, biographical sketches and audio broadcasts, is part of the Official Colles Sports Network. OCSN currently hosts sites for more than 100 universities, including eight Big 12 schools.

INSIDE BAYLOR SPORTS TV SHOW
Inside Baylor Sports, a half-hour look at the world of Baylor athletics, airs weekly throughout Central Texas and the region. The program, co-hosted by John Morris and Lori Scott-Fogleman, airs on KCEN-TV Channel 6, Fox Sports Net Southwest and the College Channel (Waco cable channel 18). KCEN carries the show at 10:30 p.m. Sundays, and it airs at 1 p.m. Wednesdays on FSN Southwest.

UP NEXT...
Baylor returns home Saturday for a 7 p.m. match against Kansas at the Ferrell Center. The Jayhawks defeated the Bears in three games last month in Lawrence, Kan.