When Hurricane Katrina stormed across the Southeast, thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and relocate across the United States.

Families were uprooted from their lives in a matter of days and had to start over again in a new place. Junior sprinter and jumper Justine Charbonnet of the Baylor women’s track and field team was one of many affected by the devastation New Orleans faced in 2005. Although leaving her home so abruptly was hard, Charbonnet’s story ends well.

The Baylor Bears will travel to Ames, Iowa on Saturday to take on an Iowa State team that is undefeated at home in Big 12 Conference play.

The Bears were off to an exceptional start in big 12 play but faltered against Oklahoma to lose their first Big 12 home game. Baylor looks to regain momentum by giving Iowa State its first loss at James H. Hilton Coliseum.

The Baylor Bears fell to the Oklahoma Sooners 74-71 in a thrilling Big 12 Conference game on Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center.

The Bears came out in the first half and played lethargic basketball. They only managed 26 first-half points. Oklahoma, on the other hand, shot 53 percent from the field in the first half and surmounted a convincing 12-point lead going into the half, 38-26. The Bears only held the lead one time in the contest and that was early in the game with a 4-2 advantage.

It only took a couple of seconds for senior center Brittney Griner to break the Big 12 scoring record.

She scored the first four points of the game as the No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears defeated Texas Tech 90-60 on Wednesday. She now has a Big 12 record 2,835 career points.

Along with VCRs, fanny packs and Rosie O’Donnell, the great sport of tennis has been an American afterthought for years. This is a sad fact, because the excitement of the game goes far beyond a recorded episode of “The View.”

The Baylor Bears will have a showdown tonight against the Oklahoma Sooners at 6 p.m. in the Ferrell Center.

The two teams are opposites in many ways. The Sooners boast frontline experience and talent but lack depth in the backcourt.

While the Bears are experienced in the backcourt with senior guards Pierre Jackson and A.J. Walton, they lack experience in the frontcourt with freshman center Isaiah Austin.

The Baylor women’s tennis team beat No. 36 Florida State and No. 21 Texas Tech this weekend in the ITA Kick-off Weekend to earn a spot in the ITA National Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va., from Feb. 8-11.

The team opened up the weekend on Saturday against Florida State with a 4-1 win. The Lady Bears secured the doubles point with a win from sophomore Ema Burgic and freshman Victoria Kisialeva. The match started off favorably with a 2-0 lead from the pair. After dropping three games in a row, the duo found themselves tied 4-4. The players finished strong with four straight games to win the doubles point.

The No. 1 Lady Bears will take on Texas Tech at 7 p.m. today in Lubbock, and will try to build on the nation’s largest winning streak.

Baylor (8-0 Big 12, 18-1 overall) and Texas Tech (6-2 Big 12, 16-4 overall) are the top two teams in the conference.

Both teams have similar numbers in scoring defense. Baylor allows an average of 53.2 points per game whereas Texas Tech allows 53.4.

However, Texas Tech has to stop the Big 12’s best scoring offense.