By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Editor
Football was on most people’s minds when it came to homecoming. That is understandable, considering football has been at the center of the occasion since 1909, but Baylor Athletics made the most of the weekend, winning six games in five sports. Let’s get into it.
FB lights up Iowa State to become bowl-eligible
Football trailed 11-0 in the first quarter, leaving people wondering if they were in store for another home heartbreaker for the Bears. The game quickly turned around when Iowa State’s Aiden Flora muffed a punt. Junior quarterback DJ Lagway eventually found senior tight end Tony Livingston, who made a one-handed catch for a touchdown.
Lagway moved the ball on the ground throughout the matchup. He ran for a season-best 119 yards, highlighted by a 54-yard touchdown. He almost had a second rushing score, but he lost the ball before reaching the end zone, and junior offensive lineman Koltin Sieracki dove on the ball for his first career touchdown.
Baylor’s offense rolled to a 42-31 victory, landing the Bears in the postseason for the first time since 2024, improving to 6-3 and 2-0 under interim head coach Joe Klanderman.
MBB, WBB dominate to remain undefeated
Both men’s basketball and women’s basketball began their seasons on Monday with MBB taking down Northwestern State and WBB defeating Fairleigh Dickinson. The women’s squad topped Central Arkansas Thursday night to set up a weekend doubleheader.
The men’s team’s defense showed up Friday night while the women’s offense lit up Sunday afternoon. The Bears tied a program record with 21 steals in their 109-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The women shot 62.5% overall and 60% from beyond the arc in its 112-40 victory over the Islanders. Junior guard Tianna Thompson led the way with 23 points, shooting 7-for-8 from deep.
SOC closes regular season with ranked W
No. 8 Baylor soccer opened homecoming weekend with its regular season finale against No. 25 Houston. The Bears waded through a physical game 2-1 but faced multiple blows.
Sophomore midfielder Olivia Hess left eight minutes into the match with an ankle injury. Senior midfielder Aryanna Jimison received her fifth yellow card of the season, leading to a one match suspension for the Bears’ first-round rematch with the Cougars. Fifth-year goalkeeper Azul Alvarez collided with a teammate and an opponent late in the game but was cleared to finish.
Baylor enters the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 3 seed.
VB takes down the Little Apple
No. 24 Baylor volleyball was in the midst of a three-match losing streak, dropping a pair of matches to Kansas and the rematch with No. 16 TCU. Sophomore Ksenia Rakhmanchik brought her A-game to end the skid against Kansas State.
Rakhmanchik dominated from the beginning, recording 15 kills and a .565 hitting percentage in the first set. The propelled her to posting 32 kills—the most in a Big 12 match this season, beating out Cincinnati’s Sydney Nolan’s 30-kill performance. She helped the Bears blow past the Wildcats in four sets, marking Baylor’s first win since Oct. 23 against Houston.
Coming up next…
- FB hits the road to take on No. 12 BYU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday
- MBB plays Yale at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Foster Pavilion; No. 7 Texas at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio
- WBB faces Prairie View A&M at 7 p.m. Thursday, East Texas A&M at 2 p.m. Sunday at Foster Pavilion
- SOC opens the Big 12 tournament against No. 6 seed Houston at 8 p.m. Monday at the Texas Health Mansfield Stadium in Mansfield.
- VB plays BYU at 7 p.m. Thursday at Foster Pavilion, travels to Colorado at 2 p.m. Sunday
- XC competes in NCAA South Central Regional Friday in College Station
- EQ faces Oklahoma State Friday in Stillwater, Oklahoma
Homecoming weekend has come and gone. Maybe you got to see your family for the first time in a while or a friend who graduated a couple of months ago. Maybe you also took part in any of Baylor’s traditions this past week. But if there’s anything that this week’s Sports Buzz taught us, it’s that we all felt the warm embrace of a Baylor win.
— Jeffrey Cohen
