THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY,OCTOBER 23,2008
SPORTS
3B
VOLLEYBALL
Baylor's strong offense results in victory against Kansas
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
While Kansas was wondering how to combat Baylor's intimidat
Uhart
ing defense during this past week, the Bears' offense decided it would challenge the Ja y h a w k s as well on Wednes day night.
Baylor swept
Kansas 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 27-25)
at the Ferrell Center in Waco,
Texas in a dominant offensive
showing. The Bears hit for an
eye-popping .427 percent in the
three sets.
"We just could not stop them," coach Ray Bechard said. "It gives you no chance to make things happen when they are hitting that high
of an efficiency."
Looking at the numbers does not make it any better. Baylor accumulated 59 total kills, which was 23 more than Kansas.
The Bears also finished with four players having double digits in kills. Sophomore outside hitter Ashlie Christenson led the way with a match high of 14 kills.
The lowest individual hitting percentage for a player that recorded at least one kill for Baylor was .308, by freshman middle blocker Briana Tolbert. That would have ranked fourth best for the jayhawks.
"Our defense behind the block was just out of whack," senior middle blocker Natalie Uhart said. "We weren't coordinated together."
The Jayhawks did hit for a respectable .245 percent and had 11 errors compared with the Bears' 12.
Usually a .200 hitting percentage or higher will keep a game competitive for Kansas, but Wednesday night was not the case.
"That's above our goal," Bechard said of the .245 percent. "That's
for the entire match, each of them early one-point leads.
Except for the third set — which saw the lavahys try to
good enough to win matches on the road,but you cannot allow a team to hit with the efficiency that they did."
K an s a s
finished with
only 35 digs,
compared with
"Our defense behind the block was just out of whack. We weren't coordinated together."
compared with Baylor's 48.
After Kansas used 75 digs in four sets to beat Oklahoma on Saturday, the 35 digs was a big drop off.
NATALIE UHART Middle blocker.
Baylor kept the pressure on all night. Kansas only held three leads
"That was a surprise," Bechard said of the defense. "But this Baylor team, I think they are a top 25 team."
win their way back before losing 27-25 — it was a seesaw match to see who could keep scoring points.
and two.
Eventually Kansas could not keep up, and Baylor ran away in sets one
"I thought we battled pretty hard throughout set three." Bechard said. "But once again on the road, we got to find a different level of defensive mindset to be successful."
Even with Baylor playing at the top of its game offensively,Uhart said she knew things could have been done differently to stop the
Bears aggressive attack.
"I'm not going to take away from what they did tonight because they hit their shots," Uhart said. "It was our side that was the problem tonight."
Kansas falls to 3-7 in conference while Baylor increases its lead of fourth place with its 6-4 conference record.
The Jayhawks are on the verge
Christenson
of running out of time this season.
With no Big 12 Tournament for volleyball, these are the only matches that Kansas has to prove itself worthy of a postseason bid.
"We can't drop anymore," Uhart said. "We are running out of games that we have to win, so that's what we think about every day."
NOTES:
While the offense was diverse as everyone contributed a solid hitting percentage, the number of actual attempts could have been better for Kansas. Freshman setter Nicole Tate had more kill attempts (15) than blockers Savannah Noyes and Brittany Williams.
"She's (Tate) scrambling at the net trying to make something happen." Bechard said. "That's just an idea of not getting your setter as many options as youd like to get her."
For a team that has been struggling with errors, the Jayhawks only had 11 errors, which is their lowest number in conference play.
"Eleven in three sets is not a lot of errors at all," Bechard said. "Anytime you error less than 15 percent that's excellent."
Edited by Jennifer Torline
MLB
Phillies strike first in World Series
BY RONALD BLUM Associated Press
ST. PETTERSBURG, Fla. — Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and the rest of the Philadelphia Phillies shook off a week's worth of waiting and turned it into a World Series win.
Hamels escaped trouble to win his fourth postseason start, Utley hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in the opener Wednesday night.
The worst-to-first Rays flopped in their first game in baseball's ultimate event, managing just five hits.
The Philies showed little evidence of rust. They'll try to make it two in a row at Tropicana Field when Brett Myers pitches against James Shields in Game 2 Thursday night.
“It’s huge,” Phillies closer Brad Lidge said. “You try and downplay it, but obviously you’re coming into a place like this, you want to make sure you get the first game, especially because you got your ace on the mound. It’s really important to do that.”
The team that won the opener has captured the Series 63 of 103 times, including 10 of the last 11. But the team with home-field advantage has taken 18 of the last 22 titles.
Hamels, MVP of the NL cham
pionship series, improved to 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA this postseason. He had only a pair of 1-2-3 innings, but the composed 24-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.
Ryan Madson pitched a perfect eighth. Lidge worked the ninth for his 47th save in 47 chances this year, silencing the Rays and their cowbell-clanging fans. Carl Crawford homered for Tampa Bay, but playoff stars B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria went a combined 0-for-8. The Rays didn't get a hit over the final four innings.
Scott Kazmir, selected two picks ahead of Hamels in the first round of the 2002 amateur draft, struggled with his control and gave up three runs, six hits and four walks in six innings.
The Phillies could have romped but went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Their other run even scored on an out, an RBI grounder by Carlos Ruiz.
Philadelphia, seeking the city's first major title since the NBA's 76ers in 1983, had six days off after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL pennant, while the Rays didn't finish off the Boston Red Sox until Game 7 on Sunday night.
also started the Series with wins in 1915 and 1983, but dropped the first game in 1950 and 1993.
The Phillies also won the opener in 1980 against Kansas City, starting them to their only title since starting play in 1883. Philadelphia
After 10 seasons as a doormat, the Rays became the surprise of baseball, toppling the defending champion Red Sox and the Yankees to win the AL East, then beating the White Sox and Boston in the playoffs. The crowd of 40,783
at the Trop wasn't given much to cheer about, though, with Crawford homering in the fourth and Akinori lwamura hitting an RBI double in the fifth.
Cowbells were sounding and fans were petting the cownose Rays in a tank in right-center during Tropicana Field's first World Series game.
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