INSAN
2009
K
S
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009
SPORTS 3B
VOLLEYBALL
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Sophomore outside hitter Allison Mayfield dives for a dig against Oklahoma. Mayfield led the team with 14 kills against Bavior Saturday.
Jerry Wang/KARAISI
Kansas succumbs to Baylor in game filled with errors
BY ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
The Kansas volleyball team continued its troubles on the road, being swept by No. 24 Baylor this Saturday. Kansas fell to 8-4 (1-2) while Baylor continued its hot streak improving to 14-1 (3-1).
"It is much more difficult to play on the road," coach Ray Bechard said. "But if you are going to be an NCAA team, or an upper level Big 12 team, then you have to find a way to win."
Kansas didn't value every point and take care of the ball, which may
be why Kansas was unable to put Baylor away in the second set, sophomore outside hitter Allison Mayfield said.
Kansas may also have been hurting with junior outside hitter Karina Garlington being out for the game with an undisclosed injury. Garlington leads the team with 164 kills for the season and is averaging 4 kills per set.
Bechard said he thought Kansas did not suffer much without Garlington as junior outside hitter jenna Kaiser played for her.
"In the end game, we should've stepped on the gas," Mayfield said. "We may have gotten a little too lax in end."
"I thought Jenna Kaiser stepped into today and did very well," Bechard said. "I'm very proud of her, and she stepped in and took some heavy swings."
Mayfield led the team with 14 kills and was the only player on the Kansas队 with double-digit kills.
Kaiser said it felt good to help the
"In the end game, we should've stepped on the gas. We may have gotten a little too lax in the end."
ALLISON MAYFIELD Outside hitter
it felt good to help the team, but thought the team was never able to get into a rhythm.
"We just didn't execute very well," Kaiser said. "Our communications levels dropped a little bit and hurt us. We had errors that were not common to this team."
Kansas around for most of the first set, but after tying the set 16-16, Baylor scored six of the next seven and Kansas ultimately lost the set 19-25.
Kansas hung
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KANSAS VS. BAYLOR
Kansas 19 | 22 | 17
Baylor 25 | 25 | 25
Mayfield said that although Baylor was a good team, Kansas had a chance to be in match, but mistakes ultimately hurt Kansas.
The second set Kansas came out strong, leading most of the set, but after Kansas was up, 19-15 Baylor went on another run, scoring 10 of the next 13 points and Kansas lost the set 22-25. The third set Kansas was flat, making 10 errors and lost the set 17-25 without much of a fight.
MLB
"They didn't do too much to beat us." Mayfield said. "We did a lot of that ourselves."
Royals take down Twins win season home finale
Edited by Abbey Strusz
Minnesota struggles as Greinke shuts down major plays
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Zack Greinke worked out of several jams in seven innings to bolster his AL Cy Young Award chances and Yuniesky Betancourt hit a three-run homer, helping the Kansas City Royals win their home finale 4-1 over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.
BY JOHN MARSHALL
Greinke (16-8) worked out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the third inning and escaped two other tight spots to drop his baseball-best ERA to 2.06.
Joakim Soria got the final six outs, inducing a groundout by Joe Mauer with two on in the ninth for his 29th save in 32 chances.
Minnesota had a chance to move within a game of the AL Central lead after Detroit lost to the White Sox.
The Twins just couldn't overcome Francisco Liriano's short-lived return to the rotation nor solve Greinke when it mattered, going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position against him.
Orlando Cabrera had three hits for Minnesota, which now faces
its biggest series of the season: four games in Detroit, starting Monday.
Dominant all season but particularly over the past month, Greinke had to fight through some tough spots.
He opened the third by walking Matt Tolbert, a .228 hitter, then gave up two soft singles to Nick Punto and Denard Span. The right-hander worked out of that with a forceout at home and consecutive strikeouts of Mauer and Jason Kubel, who slammed his helmet to the ground in frustration.
After whizzing through a five-pitch fourth inning, Greinke ran into more trouble in the sixth, giving up his first run in 40 2-3 innings
on Michel
C u d d y e r ' s groundout that made it 4-1.
The Twins had two on with no outs in each of the next two innings against him, failing to score both times.
With the Twins trying to catch the Tigers in the Central, manager Ron Gardenhire didn't have a lot of patience for the left-hander in his first start since Aug. 17.
same kind of leeway.
Greinke allowed one run and seven hits to beat Minnesota for the first time in seven starts. He's 5-0 with a 0.73 ERA over his last seven outings and has allowed one run or less in 17 of 32 starts this season.
Zack Greinke's performance in the game helped drop the Royals pitcher's earned run average to 2.06.
Try 45 pitches worth.
Both runners moved up on a sacrifice before Betancourt hit a 1-2 pitch out to left for his sixth homer.
Liriano made it through the first inning, stranding Willie Bloomquist at third. In the second, he gave up a leadoff double to Alberto Callaspo and walked Miguel Olivo.
Liriano (5-13) didn't get the
A four-pitch walk to Luis Hernandez — a .169 hitter — another walk to Mitch Maier, and Gardenhire came to the mound.
Liriano was done after five outs.
Betancourt also doubled to lead off the fourth and scored on Jeff Manship's wild pitch.
Royals trainer Nick Swartz, who's retiring after 33 seasons with the organization, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
The entire roster joined him on the mound. Mauer is 25 for 55 against the Royals this season after going 2 for 5. The Royals drew nearly 1.8 million fans this season, their most since 1993.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Royals' Josh Anderson, center, celebrates with Alex Gordon, left, and Yuniesky Betancourt after hitting a three-run home run against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game Sept. 17 in Detroit. The Royals defeated the Twins on Sunday, winning their season home finale.
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