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As far as exhibition games go, whether a team wins or loses, the result is not included in the season’s win or loss column. Technically, the season for the defending national champion Baylor Lady Bears doesn’t start until Nov. 9, but they see this game as the start to their season.

“We get to get away from playing each other,” junior guard Odyssey Sims said. “We always make each other better: going against each other we compete, but at the end of the day we’ve got to leave it on the court. Just to know that we play Tuesday, it’s really exciting.”

Kung Fu Panda, The Freak, The Beard and all their seed-throwing buddies are on top of baseball — again.

They may be under the radar, unappreciated and unexpected. But they’re unassailable, the winner of two World Series titles in the last three years.

Their sweep of the Detroit Tigers, completed Sunday night with a 4-3, 10-inning win, was simply historic.

No National League team had swept a World Series since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds.

The NBA season starts tonight, and fans in two cities can hardly control their excitement. I’m talking, of course, about Los Angeles and Miami.

If you look back just a year to when the league suffered a lockout, it seemed like the league was going to be shaken up. When the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified on Dec. 8, 2011, it put in place a framework that would prevent “super teams” from forming.

Four turnovers cost Baylor on the road at Iowa State, falling 35-21 to the Cyclones.

Iowa State quarterback, senior Steele Jantz, finished the game with 381 yards for five touchdowns and an interception.

Sophomore receiver Jarvis West also had a career night with a trio of touchdowns and 99 yards.

The No. 15 Baylor women’s soccer team won their final regular season game over TCU by a score of 2-0. The team finished their season 14-1-4 overall and 5-0-3 in conference play.

A 103-75 win for the No. 18 Baylor basketball team over the Abilene Christian Wildcats showed the high ceiling for the Bears.

“When you’re in practice and you go against the same guys every day, you tend to pick up their tendencies,” freshman center Isaiah Austin said. “It’s always good to get out there and find out ways to play defense other than against your teammates.”

Saturday is do or die for the Baylor Bears as they travel to Ames, Iowa, to take on the Iowa State Cyclones at 6 p.m. for their homecoming in 40-degree weather.

“We’ve had our first half of the season, and now we’re going into our second half,” head coach Art Briles said. “I don’t know if it’s a good analogy or not, but I use why divorces happen – there’s a variety of reasons, but sometimes it’s because you hear things, you see things, you do things, and sometimes it amounts over time. Then it goes to a point to where you think you can get away from it. What we’re trying to do is start cleaning. We have six games left, and those six games will determine our football season.”

Texas at Kansas: The Longhorns are still ranked in No. 23 in the latest BCS standings and face arguably the worst team in the Big 12, the Kansas Jayhawks. The rushing attack and physicality of Texas should overpower the Jayhawks. Texas is favored by 21 points and the rushing attack led by Joe Bergeron should power to Texas to a comfortable victory. It is Kansas’ homecoming so they should play with added spirit. Prediction: Texas 31, Kansas 21

The Baylor men’s and women’s cross-country teams will take on their conference rivals Saturday at the Big 12 Championships in Austin at the Jimmy Clay Golf Course. The women will begin at 10 a.m. and the men at 11 a.m.

The top team in each division will earn the title of Big 12Champions and the top 15 runners in each race will be given all-conference honors. The men will run an 8,000-meter course and the women will compete in a 6,000-meter run.

Elite Eight rings are set aside, Adidas shoes are laced up and neon is put on as the No. 18 Baylor men’s basketball team takes the floor at the Ferrell tonight against Abilene Christian in its only exhibition game before the start of the 2012-2013 season.

With just one regular season game remaining, the No. 15 Baylor women’s soccer team is ready for a postseason run.
The team will likely be seated No. 2 in the Big 12 tournament, but standing in its way is the TCU Horned Frogs.

The Horned Frogs are 6-8-3 on the year and just 1-4-2 in conference play, but a lot is riding on this game.

The No. 8 Texas Longhorns outlasted the Baylor Bears in Austin 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-9, 25-22). For the first time since 2006, the Baylor volleyball team won a set in Austin against the Texas Longhorns Tuesday evening.

After playing close in a competitive first set loss, the Bears found their stride against Texas and played a brilliant second set to top Texas 25-20.

Baylor women’s tennis player, Ema Burgic advanced to the USTA/ITA Regional final on Tuesday, but lost a tough battle to the No. 1 seed of the tournament, Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar of Texas A&M.

Baylor served as one of twelve regional sites across the country for the Regional Championships from Oct. 19-23 at the Hurd Tennis Center. Baylor competed against teams from the Texas region.

By Krista Pirtle Sports Editor What looked like a successful start for the Baylor defense against SMU on Sept. 2…

There is no doubt that Baylor’s defense is the Achilles heel of the team. But why is the defense so awful? It sounds strange, but Baylor’s offense might be one reason the Bears have never had a vaunted defense. Is head coach Art Briles’ offensive philosophy hurtful to his defense? Baylor possesses a high-octane prolific scoring offense that any team in college football would be jealous of. But the quick-strike ability of the offense might be crippling the defense.

The old adage “defense wins championships” has held true throughout time. In the BCS top 15, 11 teams have a top 15-ranked defense. Last year, Alabama won the national title on the back of its defense, and it might win another this year. The Bears’ defense currently ranks dead last in points against, total defense, first down defense and third down defense.

Baylor and Texas came into Saturday night’s game in a minor state of panic. Both teams started the year strong, but each has lost its last two games. The Bears fell to the Longhorns 50-56, 106 points and 1,132 points later.

Senior quarterback Nick Florence finished the game 30-of-41 with 352 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

“I was really proud of the team and how they fought,” head coach Art Briles said. “We challenged them this week to be tough physically and mentally, to have a tough man’s mentality.”

By Daniel Hill Sports Writer The Baylor football team is at a pivotal moment in its season. A three game…

The Indiana Fever made it their mission to get Tamika Catchings a WNBA championship.

Catchings had won three Olympic gold medals and an NCAA championship at Tennessee in 1998, but never one in the WNBA.

She scored 25 points to help the Indiana Fever win their first WNBA title with an 87-78 victory over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday night.

The No. 20 Baylor women’s soccer team certainly found a flair for the dramatic over the weekend after two nail-biting victories over conference foes Texas and Iowa State.

Friday’s victory over the Texas Longhorns came in double overtime, but not after some late-game drama. Senior forward Dana Larsen scored what appeared to be a game-winning goal in the 80th minute of the game.

Larsen fired a shot from about 30 yards away. The ball landed in front of Longhorn freshman goalkeeper Abby Smith. It appeared as though Smith would make a routine save, but the ball took an odd bounce and went over Smith’s head and into the goal.

Both Baylor and Texas came into Saturday night’s game in a minor state of panic. Both teams started the year strong, but each has lost its last two games. 106 points and 1,132 points later, the Bears fell to the Longhorns 50-56.

Iowa State at Oklahoma State

This matchup comes down to offense versus defense. Iowa State’s defense has been spectacular so far this season, and Oklahoma State’s spread offense always seems to put up points. OSU quarterback J.W. Walsh is questionable for the game, and head coach Mike Gundy has been keeping Walsh’s health under wraps. The Cowboys should be fine whether Walsh or Wes Lunt are handling the quarterback duties. For the Cyclones, Jared Barnett has proven to be a winner. This should be a tightly contested game with an interesting contrast of styles between the two teams. Iowa State defense should top Oklahoma State’s offense.

The Baylor Bears volleyball team defeated TCU in an epic, hard-fought match that lasted all five sets. The Bears won 23-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-18, 15-13 to earn their second Big 12 conference victory.

“We just did not have our ‘A’ game tonight,” head coach Jim Barnes said. “We were really struggling in every facet of the game but we were fighting through it is what I liked. We were fighting and our defense and our blocking picked up just in time to turn the match around. Especially the blocking. I thought [Adri] Nora did a great job hustling and getting blocks. We made enough digs there at the end to get the win.”

The No. 20 Baylor women’s soccer team will take on I-35 rival the University of Texas Longhorns at 7 p.m. Friday at home. The Bears are 11-1-4 on the season with a 2-0-3 conference record, but will look for their first home conference win since September 28.

The Longhorns struggled early in the season starting just 3-6. Since then,

Baylor women’s tennis will compete in the USTA/ITA Regional Championship beginning on Friday at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.

The winner of the Regional Championship, which will be awarded on Tuesday, will gain a bid to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship in New York, N.Y. in November.

A five-run first inning gave the National Professional Fastpitch All Star team a winning start over the Baylor softball team Tuesday at Getterman Stadium. Despite the Lady Bears’ efforts, the game ultimately resulted in a score of 8-0.

West Virginia: 12 of 15, 80 percent

TCU: 14 of 19, 73.68 percent

Big 12 Conference: 26 of 34, 76 percent

So far in Big 12 Conference games the Baylor defense has allowed its opponents to convert on third downs more than 76 percent of the time (26 of 34).

On Tuesday, Baylor Athletics and Baylor University Director of Athletics Ian McCaw debuted a new strategic five-year plan that details goals for the entire department.

Primarily, the new strategic plan has five central focuses: student-athlete experience; athletic excellence; culture of integrity; resource development and stewardship; and branding and engagement.

Brittney Griner watched the Olympics and wished she was there. Thanks to the WNBA draft lottery, she might know where she’s going.

Before Rio in 2016, or even getting started in the pros next summer, there is still the senior season with the Lady Bears for the fun-loving All-American who can dunk and broke her right wrist in a longboarding accident this summer. Baylor is coming off the NCAA’s first 40-win season and returns every starter from its undefeated national championship team.

Moonlight Madness was a success last Friday night. The campus will soon be buzzing with basketball on the horizon, and the teams will look to hang banners in April.

Fans flooded the Ferrell Center for a taste of what they will get when the season starts next month.

“There was a lot of energy, man,” freshman forward Rico Gathers said. “I didn’t expect it to be this live…I can’t wait until the season starts.”