Author: Branson Hardcastle

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterJust dance. A phrase made popular by Lady Gaga in her hit song “Just Dance,” is a motto that my family lives by. As far back as I can remember, my family has been dancing to all sorts of music in a variety of different ways from two-stepping to the Carlton. My mom made it a point to teach all five of her kids how to do different dances for different occasions. She and my dad taught us how to waltz, two-step and swing dance. All of my siblings and I have continued to dance…

Story by Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter, Video by Elisabeth Tharp | Broadcast Reporter No. 23 Baylor men’s tennis dropped its first home match of the season Sunday afternoon against the 15th ranked Texas Longhorns. The Bears fell to 18-8 and 1-4 in Big 12 play. Texas was able to sweep the Bears for the first time this season, winning the match 4-0. The match started off tightly contested in doubles play as both teams were fighting for every point. On court one, ninth ranked doubles team junior Johannes Schretter and redshirt junior Will Little played Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter Baylor’s Diadeloso is a long-standing tradition that dates back to 1932. It consists of many different activities, but one that stands out above the rest is the Baylor Fun Run. In its sixth year, the Baylor Fun Run encouraged students to start Diadeloso on an active note with a two-mile run. The run was filled with different obstacles and fun activities such as paint, foam, silly string and streamers. North Richland Hills senior Raphael Raganit, a member of Chamber of Commerce, said he believes the Fun Run is a great way to start Diadeloso.…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter The 25th ranked Baylor Women’s Tennis team hosted a doubleheader Friday with Louisiana Tech and West Virginia. In the first match of the day, Baylor jumped out to an early lead over the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters in doubles play. Freshmen Livia Kraus and Giorgia Testa downed Karla De La Luz and Andrea Perez-Lopez, 6-2 on court one. In the No. 2 doubles slot, the 80th ranked doubles tandem of sophomore Jessica Hinojosa and freshman Kristina Sorokolet clinched the doubles point for the Bears with a 6-2 win over Nadja Manjon and Angela Lorenzo.…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter No. 21 Baylor Women’s Tennis finished this weekend with one win and one loss after a tough slate of Big 12 Conference matches. Friday night, the Lady Bears welcomed No. 15 Texas Tech to Waco for their fifth conference match of the season. Baylor entered the match with back to back wins over top 50 teams, including a win over ninth ranked Northwestern. The Lady Bears started off strong as sophomore Angie Shakhraichuk and freshman Dominika Sujova defeated Alex Valenstein and Lana Rush 6-2 on court three. Texas Tech stormed back and took the…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterThe Baylor men’s tennis program is a dominant team that has reached the NCAA Tournament for 20 consecutive seasons. At the helm of this prestigious program is head coach Matt Knoll. This season is Knoll’s 22nd at Baylor. He has seen the program from its lowest point to its highest peak, winning the 2004 NCAA Team Championship. Knoll has been recognized by others in tennis as one of the best collegiate coaches. He has been voted a National Coach of the Year three times, as well as the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterMarch Madness, the two greatest words in sports, reigns true to its name year after year. It’s a time where basketball fans cheer on their teams in the biggest tournament of the year –– the NCAA tournament. The NCAA tournament brings some of the blue blood basketball teams together, such as Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina, face-to-face with smaller universities such as UMBC, Loyola-Chicago and many others. March Madness has everything: emotion, buzzer-beaters, insane dunks, crazy celebrations and, most importantly, upsets. This year alone, there have been too many upsets to keep up with. UMBC…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterThe No. 24 Baylor men’s tennis team (12-3) upset No. 11 Columbia (8-2) 4-2 on Monday night in Waco in a close match. This was a chance for the Bears to get revenge on the Lions as Baylor lost to Columbia 4-2 on Feb. 17 at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said this was a great win for the team. “Well we’re getting better. I think that is what’s so gratifying, because they beat us pretty good when we played them a month ago,” Coach Knoll said. “To see…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter The 18th-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team returned home Saturday to face Abilene Christian University in a doubleheader, sweeping the Wildcats 7-0 in both matches. In the first match, the Bears started off hot, notching wins in all three doubles matches. Freshmen Roy Smith and Sven Lah found the first win in defeating Henry Adams and Brad Gleason 6-1. This win set the tone for the rest of the Bears as Baylor clinched the doubles point by winning 6-1 on courts one and two. In the singles competition, sophomore Bjoern Petersen defeated ACU’s Jonathan Sheehy…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter Chris Fuentes and Ashley Hodge are friends who consider themselves Baylor basketball fanatics. This designation may be correct as one can find them at almost every home game of the season. Fuentes said he began attending games in 1992 and grew to love what Baylor is. “I started coming to games and when I realized what Baylor was about it was easy to get hooked,” Fuentes said. “Scott Drew was a big part of that too, because it’s all about family, family, family. When Coach Drew got here, it was a big family environment.”…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter Baylor women’s tennis hosted No. 17 Miami Sunday, beating the Hurricanes 4-3 in a heated match.The Lady Bears lost the doubles point to start the match, but found their rhythm in singles play. Sophomore Angelina Shakhraichuk, freshman Livia Kraus and sophomore Jessica Hinojosa won their matches in straight sets to give Baylor a 3-1 lead. Miami’s Perez-Somarriba and Sinead Lohan defeated Baylor’s Theresa Van Zyl and Kris Sorokolet in straight sets on courts one and two to tie the score at 3-3. All eyes turned to court four to watch Baylor sophomore Camilla Abatte…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter The 16th ranked women’s tennis team had a rough weekend dropping two matches at home against Tulsa and University of Central Florida. The Lady Bears hosted Tulsa on Saturday at the Hawkins Indoor Arena falling to the Golden Hurricane 4-2. Tulsa started the match hot, winning the doubles point with a pair of 6-3 victories and winning the No. 1 singles match. The Golden Hurricane used those victories to go up 2-0 on Baylor and never looked back. The Lady Bears tried to make a comeback with freshman Livia Kraus defeating Alexandrina Chinkova 6-2…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterValentine’s Day is a time when “love is in the air.” Everyone gets together with their significant other and goes to dinner, opens gifts and spends quality time together. The question is, why is this only celebrated once a year? Why do we only celebrate our significant other on this day and not continuously throughout the year? I have known many people who use Valentine’s Day as their one and only time of the year to do something special for their boyfriend or girlfriend. They feel as long as they do one thing, they have…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast ReporterThe No. 8 Baylor equestrian team defeated No. 5 Auburn 9-8 Friday at home in a rematch from this past fall. Baylor traveled to Auburn in October and fell to the Tigers 15-4. This match was an opportunity for Baylor to avenge that rode loss and pick up a big win over a highly-ranked opponent. Head coach Casie Maxwell said the match all came down to the last ride. “There was an opportunity about half way through where we were down by a couple of points that we could have started to kind of fall…

By Branson Hardcastle | Broadcast Reporter Baylor Men’s Tennis started its season on a high note, notching two wins Saturday against the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Baylor took down the Kangaroos 7-0 in both matches. Each team played three doubles matches and six singles matches in both the 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. match ups. In the first match, junior Johannes Schretter and redshirt junior Will Little suffered a surprising loss in their doubles match as they fell to UMKC’s Airam Castellano and Alex Pozo 6-3. Schretter and Little are ranked No. 2 in doubles, but could not garner…

Pedal to the Metal

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor club baseball is looking to exceed their second place finish in the National Club Baseball Association Gulf Coast Regional Tournament last year. The baseball club plays in the North Conference of the Gulf Coast Region. Last year, the club finished with a 20-7 overall record while winning their conference. Playing against teams such as North Texas, Texas Tech and Southern Methodist University, Baylor has proven to be a tough team to beat as it has won its conference in back-to-back seasons. At regionals, the club advanced to the finals to play against Texas State where…

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor freshman Michael Karr had always dreamed of going on mission trips to help others in need. During the summer of his junior year of high school, Michael got his chance. Michael is a native of Waco and has been raised in the church. Traveling and missions have been passions of his from an early age. Michael began attending Highland Baptist Church in Waco during his sophomore year of high school. He connected with his youth pastor, Jordan McKinney, who discipled him by doing Bible studies with him. This connection between them led Michael to get…

The Bears overpowered the Horned Frogs in winning 50-8 in Fort Worth on Saturday.

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor women’s club volleyball (7-4) is looking to continue its recent success as it prepares for the spring semester. The club placed 2nd in the Baylor Women’s Club Volleyball Tournament that the club hosted on October 14. On November 4, the club finished in fifth place at the University of Houston Veterans Day Tournament. The club is highly competitive, with most members having high school and club experience before joining the club. Montgomery senior libero and vice president Emily Moon said the club added many new freshmen who are ready and excited to play this season.…

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterCollege is a stressful time. Many students stay stressed because they are so worried about tests, essays and homework. It is important to stay on top of your schoolwork and to get good grades, but the amount of stress we put on ourselves sometimes feels unbearable. I have experienced this many times, especially when I have multiple tests or papers due on the same day. One trick I have learned to help dissolve the stress is to look for the joy in things. It may sound weird that you can find joy while studying or writing,…

Calling all rowdy Baylor University basketball fans, the Bear Pit Leadership Team needs your help getting ready for the 2017-2018 season.

Baylor Quidditch hosted some of the top quidditch teams in the state at their fourth annual Brooms on the Brazos tournament.

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor men’s water polo concluded its season finishing in fourth-place over the weekend at the Texas Division Championship at Rice University. Going into the tournament, Baylor was 4-4 and ranked sixth in the Texas Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association. The tournament consisted of 12 teams, including Texas A&M, University of Texas, Rice University and Texas Tech University. The club’s first game was against No. 3 Texas A&M B team. They met earlier in the season in a tournament at Texas Tech University which Texas A&M B won 9-6. Houston senior set player and club…

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor men’s club soccer team’s season came to an end over the weekend at the NIRSA Region IV South Soccer Tournament at the University of Texas. Baylor played three games Saturday before being knocked out of the tournament. The first two games of the tournament were pool play and only the top two teams from each pool advanced to the single elimination tournament. In its first game of the day, the club played Lone Star College- North Harris. Baylor took the lead early in the game as San Antonio junior Nico Pantanini scored off of a…

By Branson Hardcastle | Reporter Lacrosse is a physical, full contact sport where one uses a crosse, a pole with a net at the top, to throw the lacrosse ball, a solid rubber ball about the size of a tennis ball, in the goal. Each goal is worth one point and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. At the start of each of the four quarters, the teams start in a face-off, where a member from each team fights for control of the ball. Whoever wins the face-off controls the ball and the…

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterQuidditch, the sport that originated from the Harry Potter movies, is flying high on Baylor’s campus. Quidditch was first introduced to the world in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling in 1997. The game has now been adapted to real life as different universities play each other. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by getting the quaffle, a ball about the size of a volleyball, through one of the opponents’ three goal hoops. Each time the quaffle passes through, the team gains 10 points. The only…

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterQuidditch, the sport that originated from the Harry Potter movies, is flying high on Baylor’s campus. Quidditch was first introduced to the world in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in 1997. The game has now been adapted to real life as different universities play each other. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by getting the quaffle, a ball about the size of a volleyball, through one of the opponents three goal hoops. Each time the quaffle passes through, the team gains ten points. The only players who can…

Beach club volleyball was founded last March, now the club is growing both in size and community.

By Branson Hardcastle | ReporterBaylor rugby placed third on Saturday at the Red River Collegiate Conference 7’s Championship at Texas Christian University. In 7’s, the field is more open and the halves are shorter, but the play is much faster. In 15’s, there are more players on the field and the halves are longer.The team started the tournament strong as it beat the University of Houston 28-0. The momentum of the first game didn’t carry over, as the club fell to Texas A&M in the next game 26-7. Houston junior inside center and team captain Stewart Morris said Texas A&M…