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BAYLOR
at
No. 22 MISSOURI
7:00 p.m. CST
Nov. 20, 2002
Hearnes Center
Columbia, Mo.
Baylor travels to Columbia, Mo., this Wednesday for a 7 p.m. CST match at No. 22 Missouri. The Bears (9-18, 2-14) play their sixth match of the season against a ranked opponent; this is the second time this season the Bears have faced Missouri with the Tigers ranked 22nd nationally. Baylor dropped a 30-21-, 30-20, 30-19 decision at home to Kansas last Saturday. Missouri (22-6, 11-5) enjoys its third straight 20-win season. The Tigers defeated Iowa State 31-33, 30-25, 22-30, 30-25, 15-11 last Saturday at Ames, Iowa.
QUICK NOTES
* Baylor and Missouri meet for the 14th time Wednesday with the Bears holding an 8-5 advantage in the all-time series.
* Since moving to the outside hitter position Sept. 26, junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz has averaged 5.68 kills, 2.53 digs and 0.52 blocks per game.
* Freshman S Emily Huston has recorded at least one service ace in seven straight matches.
* Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz needs five kills to move into ninth place on Baylor's all-time single-season kills chart.
* Baylor has tallied at least one service ace in 59 consecutive matches and at least two service aces in 28 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 117-107 (.521) overall record and a 51-85 (.375) 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. MISSOURI
Head coach Brian Hosfeld has a career record of 8-5 against Missouri. He has coached the Bears in all of the schools' meetings. Hosfeld led the Bears to victories against the Tigers in each of their first four meetings.
LAST TIME OUT - KANSAS 3, BAYLOR 0
WACO, Texas - Josiane Lima led all players with 12 kills and hit .360 on the night as Kansas knocked off Baylor 30-20, 30-22, 30-26. Baylor struggled to get any consistent offense all night. Stella Odion led the Bears with nine kills, marking the first time this season the Bears failed to have at least one player reach double figures in kills. Tisha Schwartz and Laura Daniela Lloreda added eight kills each, while Lloreda led the Bears with 10 digs. With the score tied 12-12 in the first game, Kansas scored 13 of the next 14 points and took control of the game and the match. The Jayhawks hit .367 (14-3-30) as a team in the opener, holding the Bears to a minus-.037 (7-8-27) clip. Things did not improve much in game two as the Jayhawks used another mid-game run to take control of the game. Baylor led 14-12 before a five-point KU run gave the Jayhawks the lead for good. Baylor's attack improved to .104 (14-9-48) in the second game, but Kansas stayed hot at .286 (17-5-42). Game three was by far the closest of the night. Neither team led by more than three points until Kansas opened up a 15-11 advantage. The Jayhawks maintained that four-point lead until Baylor pulled to within one point at 21-20. However, Kansas scored six of the next eight points. The Bears managed to pull back within two points at 28-26, but Kansas put the match away on the next two serves.
THE MISSOURI SERIES
This is the 14th meeting between Baylor and Missouri with the Bears holding an 8-5 advantage in the all-time series. All 13 meetings have come since the inception of the Big 12 Conference in 1996. Baylor and Missouri first met Sept. 28, 1996 in Waco, Texas; that was the second-ever Big 12 match for the Bears, and they were victorious 15-4, 15-9, 15-12. Baylor went on to win each of the first four meetings in the series, also taking the second meeting in three games. However, Baylor's success against Missouri came to an end in 1998 when the Bears dropped a four-game decision in Columbia, Mo. Since then, MU holds a slim 5-4 advantage in the series, including a three-game victory earlier this season in Waco.
THE MISSOURI TIGERS
Missouri (22-6, 11-5) is in its third season under the direction of head coach Susan Kreklow. She is 575-144 in 13 years as a collegiate head coach, most coming at the Division II level. Kreklow is 66-24 in her two-plus seasons at Missouri.
MU Notes: The Tigers are ranked 22nd nationally in this week's AVCA/USA Today Coaches Poll, up two spots from last week. ... Missouri started the season 14-1 before a stunning four-game loss at Texas Tech in early October. Since then, the Tigers are 8-4 with a pair of losses to Kansas State, and one loss each at Nebraska and at Texas A&M. ... Missouri hits .261 as a team, holding opponents to a .205 clip. The Tigers average 16.89 kills, 2.00 service aces, 15.24 digs and 2.41 blocks per game. ... Senior MB Christi Myers leads the Mizzou attack with a .377 attacking percentage, 3.91 kills and 1.09 blocks per game. Three Tigers average at least 3.00 kills per game. Along with Myers, freshman OH Shen Danru averages 3.96 and junior OH Mary Lauren Smith averages 3.68. Senior OH Lisa Morris averages 3.34 kills per game, but she has been sidelined with an injury most of the season. With 0.54 service aces per game, Danru is one of the top serving threats in the conference. She also leads the Tigers with 3.10 digs per game.
BAYLOR VS. RANKED TEAMS
The Bears' match against Missouri marks the 121st time Baylor has played a nationally ranked team since the national poll was established in 1982. Baylor is 8-112 in such matches; the Bears are 0-5 this season against ranked opponents with losses to then-No. 5 Long Beach State (Aug. 31), then-No. 22 Missouri (Oct. 16), then-No. 4 Nebraska (Oct. 19), then-No. 19 Texas (Oct. 30) and then-No. 25 Kansas State (Nov. 9). The Bears last victory over a ranked team was a five-game decision Oct. 25, 2000 against then-No. 23 Kansas State. Baylor enjoyed its best season against ranked competition during the 1999 campaign, going 5-6 that season. The Bears are 7-58 against ranked opponents under head coach Brian Hosfeld.
LAST MEETING - No. 22 MISSOURI 3, BAYLOR 0 (OCT. 16, 2002)
WACO, Texas - Tisha Schwartz tallied 15 kills, and Stella Odion hit .381 with five blocks, but it was not enough as Baylor volleyball dropped a 30-26, 30-15, 31-29 decision to No. 22 Missouri. Baylor found little answer for a balanced Missouri attack that featured three players with at least 10 kills. Shen Danru led all players with 17 kills, hitting .389 on the night. Christi Myers added 14 kills with a .500 attacking percentage, and Mary Lauren Smith chipped in with 10 kills. Baylor played the Tigers tight in game one, pulling to within two points at 25-23 after trailing by as much as seven points on two occasions. However, Missouri built its lead back up to four points and then played side-out volleyball the rest of the way for the victory. Game two was all Missouri as the Tiger hits .448 (16-3-29) as a team and held Baylor to a .000 clip (7-7-25). The 15 points scored by the Bears tied Baylor's lowest point total in a 30-game match. The Bears were held to 15 points in the first game of their match at Kansas State last season before forcing the match to five games. The Bears rebounded with a stronger showing in game three, hitting .233 and holding Missouri to .227. The Tigers built an early edge and led by as much five points on four occasions. Trailing 20-15, though, Baylor scored 10 of the next 15 points to tie the game at 25-25. The teams swapped points for the next seven points before Missouri recaptured the lead on a Schwartz attack error. Myers put the match away with a service ace, the 10th of the night for Missouri. Schwartz was the only Bear to reach double figures in kills; she also had seven digs, one service ace and two blocks. Odion finished with nine kills and seven digs.
SCHWARTZ CONTINUES TO CLIMB KILLS LIST
Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz enters Wednesday's match at Missouri four kills shy of ninth place on Baylor's all-time single-season kills chart. Schwartz, who has 435 kills on the season, currently stands 10th on the school list, just behind Elisha Polk's 1996 total of 439. Even if the Bears play only three games in each of their final four matches, Schwartz is on pace to finish the season with 471 kills. That would eighth in school history. Reaching 500 kills is not out of the question, and that is a feat only three Bears have ever accomplished. Stevie Nicholas has done it twice (2000, 2001), Polk did it three times (1997, 1998, 1999) and Kia Young did it once (1999).
WEDNESDAY WOES
Baylor has lost five 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 4-13 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.
