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BAYLOR
vs.
No. 5 NEBRASKA
2 p.m. CST
No. 23, 2002
Ferrell Center
Waco, Texas
Baylor returns to action Saturday, hosting No. 5 Nebraska for a 2 p.m. CST match at the Ferrell Center. The Bears (9-19, 2-15) play their seventh match of the season against a ranked opponent and their second consecutive such match. Baylor lost 20-21, 30-24, 30-31 Wednesday night at No. 22 Missouri. Meanwhile, the Huskers (25-1, 17-0) have won 23 straight, including a 30-22, 30-25, 30-15 victory Wednesday at home against Kansas. Live stats Baylor-Nebraska match for the match will be available at www.BaylorBears.com, the official website of Baylor Athletics and a member of the Official College Sports Network. Live audio will be available at www.Huskers.com, the official website of Nebraska Athletics. World-renowned radio personality John Baylor provides play-by-play on the Nebraska Radio Network.
QUICK FACTS
* Baylor and Nebraska meet for the 15th time Wednesday with the Huskers having won each of the first 14 meetings.
* Since moving to the outside hitter position Sept. 26, junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz has averaged 5.59 kills, 2.49 digs and 0.50 blocks per game.
* Freshman S Emily Huston has recorded at least one service ace in eight straight matches.
* Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz needs 17 kills to move into eighth place on Baylor's all-time single-season kills chart.
* Baylor has tallied at least one service ace in 60 consecutive matches and at least two service aces in 29 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 117-108 (.520) overall record and a 51-86 (.374) 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. NEBRASKA
Like most coaches in the Big 12 Conference, Baylor head coach Brian Hosfeld has not had much luck against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are 13-0 against Hosfeld-coached squads, winning 12 of the 13 meetings in three games. In fact, Nebraska is 138-9 all-time in Big 12 play, having suffered losses to only Colorado, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M. Colorado's Pi'i Aiu and Texas A&M's Laurie Corbelli are the only current Big 12 coaches to have ever beaten Nebraska.
LAST TIME OUT - No. 22 MISSOURI 3, BAYLOR 0
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Several scoring runs and slow starts proved fatal for the Bears in a 30-21, 30-24, 30-21 loss at No. 22 Missouri. Tisha Schwartz finished with her ninth double-double of the season, leading the Bears with 15 kills and 10 digs. Laura Daniela Lloreda added 10 kills and just missed a double-double with nine digs. Missouri's attack was too strong for Baylor in the first game; the Tigers hit .324 as a team with 17 kills. Christi Myers was perfect in the opener with six kills in six attempts, and Mary Lauren Smith added five kills. Meanwhile, Baylor got six kills from Lloreda, but no other player had more than two. The Bears hit just .091 (10-7-33) as a team. Missouri jumped out to a 9-3 lead and never looked back. The Bears pulled to within one point at 9-8, but the Tigers regained control of the game with a three-point run. Baylor never got to within three points after that. In game two, Missouri scored the first seven points and appeared to have Baylor against the ropes. However, the Bears battled back, scoring 16 of the next 26 points to pull within one point at 17-16. That was as close as the Bears would get, though, as Missouri opened its lead back out with a 6-2 run. Baylor closed to within three at 26-23, but back-to-back attacking errors by the Bears propelled Missouri to the 30-24 victory. After connecting on six of its first nine swings with no errors in the second game, Missouri cooled to .262 (18-7-42). Baylor continued to struggle offensively, slipping to .026 (11-10-38). Schwartz picked things up with five second-game kills, but again no other Bear had more than two kills. Baylor stayed with Missouri early in game three, leading on three occasions through the first two rotations. However, with the score tied 9-9, the Tigers score four straight and 11 of the next 14 points and took a commanding 20-12 lead. The Bears answered with four straight points, making it 20-16, but Baylor could get no closer.
THE NEBRASKA SERIES
The history between Baylor and Nebraska is a short one - the Cornhuskers have won all 14 matches in the series, dropping just one game along the way. Nebraska swept the season series last year, winning in three games in Waco and in four games at Lincoln. Baylor won game one at Nebraska Coliseum 30-28; the Bears are the only team to have won a game at Nebraska in a regular season match since Southern Cal took two games in the first match of the 2000 season. The teams first met Sept. 22, 1995 in Lincoln as a part of the Arby's Classic. Nebraska won this season's first meeting 30-16, 30-23, 30-19 at Lincoln, Neb.
THE NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS
Nebraska (25-1) is in its third season under the direction of head coach John Cook. He is 352-76 in 10 years as a collegiate head coach with a near-perfect 90-3 mark at Nebraska.
NU Notes: The Huskers are ranked fifth nationally in this week's AVCA/USA Today Coaches Poll. ... The lone blemish on the Huskers record this season is a 30-26, 30-19, 32-30 defeat Sept. 2 against Southern Cal, which has been ranked No. 1 nationally for most of the season and returned to the No. 1 spot this week. Since then, Nebraska has won 23 straight, dropping one game at then-No. 11 Arizona, one game at then-No. 25 Texas A&M and one game at Texas along the way. ... Nebraska is attempting to clinch at least a tie for the Big 12 Conference title. It would be the third straight season in which the Huskers have accomplished that feat with a win over Baylor. Nebraska shoots for its fourth straight Big 12 title and its sixth in the league's seven-year history. .... The Huskers have won 67 consecutive Big 12 matches. Their last conference loss was in 1999 at Texas.
BAYLOR VS. RANKED TEAMS
The Bears' match against Nebraska marks the 122nd time Baylor has played a nationally ranked team since the national poll was established in 1982. Baylor is 8-113 in such matches; the Bears are 0-6 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), then-No. 25 Kansas State (Nov. 9) and at No. 22 Missouri (Nov. 20). 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 7-59 against ranked opponents under head coach Brian Hosfeld.
LAST MEETING - No. 4 NEBRASKA 3, BAYLOR 0 (OCT. 19, 2002)
LINCOLN, Neb. - No. 4 Nebraska hit .472 as a team and forced Baylor attackers into 21 errors as the Bears dropped a 30-16, 30-23, 30-19 decision to the Huskers last Saturday. Tisha Schwartz led all players with 16 kills; however, she was the only Bear to reach double figures in kills. Kelly Spriggs added six kills, and Laura Daniela Lloreda had five. Stella Odion matched her career best for digs, leading all players with 11. Nebraska's offense was nearly unstoppable in the opener. The Huskers hit above .600 most of the way and finished at .500, scoring 21 kills with only three errors in 36 swings. Meanwhile, the Bears hit .067 in game one with just seven kills and five errors in 30 attempts. Baylor got half its points off Nebraska errors as the Huskers committed five service errors along with the three miss-swings. Baylor rebounded with a stronger showing in game two, leading much of the early part of the game. The teams played side-out volleyball for the first 13 points before a Schwartz kill put the Bears up 8-6. Nebraska fought back for a 10-9 advantage only to see the Bears score three straight. Baylor pushed its lead to 15-12 before the Huskers put together one of their patented runs, scoring 10 of the next 11 points and building a 22-16 lead. The Bears hit .257 in game two (15-6-35), but the Huskers remained hot, hitting .476 (23-3-42). The 23 kills by Nebraska are the most allowed in a game this season by Baylor. With Nebraska leading 14-9 in game three, the Bears put together a 5-1 run to cut the lead to 15-14. The Huskers called a timeout and then went on an 11-3 run. That put Nebraska up 26-17, and the Bears could never get any closer.
SCHWARTZ CONTINUES TO CLIMB KILLS LIST
Junior OH/MB Tisha Schwartz enters Saturday's match against Nebraska in ninth place all-time at Baylor with 450 on the season. She is 17 kills shy of eighth place, held by Heather Williams (467, 1992). Even if the Bears play only three games in each of their final three matches, Schwartz is on pace to finish the season with 492 kills. That would seventh 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).
OTHER IMPRESSIVE SCHWARTZ STATS
Schwartz has tallied at least 10 kills in all but four matches this season. In those four matches, she had nine kills three times and seven kills once. Schwartz has reached the 10-kill plateau in 17 of the last 18 matches. 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 25 matches. She has reached the 20.0-point plateau nine times and the 30.0-point level twice.
