With the start of another school year at Baylor comes the start of the Bears and Lady Bears’ athletic schedules. Football, volleyball, women’s soccer, and preseason basketball all provide great and exciting match ups for students to come support their Baylor Bears. Let’s take a look at the games across the Baylor landscape.
Baylor football returns after posting an 11-2 record in 2014, winning a second consecutive Big 12 championship. While every game in football is important and offers postseason implications, here’s a look at Baylor’s biggest games:
On Saturday, November 14, the Oklahoma Sooners come to Waco after losing the past two contests by a combined score of 89-26. The Baylor offense has absolutely torched the Sooner defense recently, averaging 501 yards against the Sooners, while holding Oklahoma to 278 yards over the same span. When Bob Stoops brings his squad to McLane Stadium, the Bears will have already played eight games, so look for the offense to be at full power and explosiveness, barring any injuries or setbacks.
Friday, November 27 is also a key date as it marks the rematch everyone in the nation has been waiting for. The Bears will travel to Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth to take on the TCU Horned Frogs in what will surely be a bloodbath unlike any other. TCU will look for revenge against the Bears after Baylor won last years game in one of more thrilling college football games of the season, if not the decade.
After trailing by 21 in the fourth quarter, the Bears reeled off 21 unanswered points to tie and kicked the winning field goal as time expired to win 61-58. First year head volleyball coach Ryan McGuyre looks to give Baylor its first winning season in three years as he takes over at the helm. His impressive coaching resume at the NAIA level, as well as his time spent as an assistant at Florida State have many people feeling good about the new addition.
The Lady Bears’ first match is scheduled for Aug. 28 against No. 12 Colorado State in the Rams Volleyball Classic tournament in Colorado. After the tournament, the team will return home to play their first home game on Sep. 4 versus Sam Houston State.
The next ranked opponent on the Lady Bears’ schedule is a home match against Texas on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. CT. That game will be the first home game versus a preseason ranked opponent. The Longhorns are currently ranked No. 3 in the nation after their 27-3 record last year.
Women’s soccer is back for an eighth season under head coach Paul Jobson. The soccer team finished the 2014 season with a 9-8-3 record. Armed with a young, athletic squad and with the Williams Family facilities opening up for this year, excitement and expectations for 2015 are high.
Friday, October 30 – The West Virginia Mountaineers come to Waco for the final game of the regular season. West Virginia had great success last season, finishing 2014 with a 16-2-4 record and winning its second consecutive Big 12 Tournament.
Returning for West Virginia is sophomore forward Michaela Abam, who ranked 4th in conference goals. However, Baylor’s notoriously stingy defense will be very difficult to penetrate, as the Lady Bears only allowed 16 goals during 2014.
The Baylor men’s basketball team returns this year after a 24-10 record (11-7 in the Big 12). The Bears are lead this season by seniors Rico Gathers and Taurean Prince.
Gathers, a first team All-Big 12 selection last season, will look to continue his bruising style that helped him average 11.7 points and 11.6 rebounds per game for the Bears.
Prince, who received second team All-Big 12 honors last year has many experts believing his numbers will rise from a season ago where he averaged 13.9 points per game (which led the Bears) and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Baylor’s schedule is impressive, in that it features 16 games against 2015 NCAA Tournament teams. The Bears open the season on Nov. 13 with a home game against Stephen F. Austin, a team that went 29-5 last season. Baylor played SFA last year in a game that they won 67-51.
After the opening home game, the Bears will take to the road to play Oregon, as part of the ESPN College Hoops Tipoff Marathon. That game will be played on Monday, Nov. 16, and will tip off at 10:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
Two additional December matchups that present a good level of competition are games against Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. The Bears will play the Commodores on Dec. 6 at the Ferrell Center and travel down for a meeting against Texas A&M on Dec. 19.
Game times and television networks are still to be determined for those games.
