Kansas Volleyball Travels to Baylor Saturday

Sept. 24, 2009

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

Complete Game Notes at Baylor

Coming off a thrilling 3-2 victory versus Oklahoma Wednesday night, the University of Kansas volleyball team (8-3, 1-1 Big 12) will face its first ranked opponent of the season Saturday, Sept. 26 when it travels to No. 24 Baylor (13-1, 2-1 Big 12). First serve for the Jayhawks and Bears is set for 1 p.m. at the Ferrel Center.

Free live stats via Gametracker will be available at www.KUAthletics.com. In addition, fans can access Baylor’s free audio broadcast of the match on the Jayhawks’ website.

Quick Hits

» The Jayhawks rank in the top four of the conference in team kills, assists and service aces. Kansas also has one player ranked in the top 10 of each statistical category in the Big 12 and two players ranked in the nation’s top 50.

» KU will face its first ranked opponent this weekend in No. 24 Baylor. The Jayhawks are 0-1 against Baylor when the Bears are ranked (1999).

» The Jayhawks last defeated a top 25 team on Nov. 3, 2007 versus No. 18 Oklahoma. KU last topped a rank foe on the road on Nov. 5, 2005 at No. 24 Kansas State.

About Kansas

Kansas notched a thrilling 3-2 victory versus Oklahoma Wednesday night to capture its first Big 12 win of the season and knot its conference record at 1-1. The Jayhawks, who are 8-3 overall, are led by Karina Garlington’s 4.00 kps, which ranks fourth in the Big 12. Senior Paige Mazour is also listed at fourth in the conference for her .374 attack percentage. Driving the KU offense is sophomore setter Nicole Tate, who is third among league players averaging 11.05 aps. The Kansas defense is anchored by junior libero Melissa Manda’s 4.02 dps, good enough for eighth in the Big 12. Freshman Tayler Tolefree also ranks eighth in the standings with 1.10 bps.

Scouting Baylor

Baylor opened up the season with 11 straight wins to work its way into the top 25 in the Sept. 14 poll release. In their second week at No. 24, the Bears have recorded conference wins over Kansas State and No. 11 Iowa State and suffered its lone loss of the season to No. 2 Texas as it brings a 13-1 overall record into this weekend’s match. Baylor is led by senior Katie Sanders’ 3.19 kps. Senior Anna Breyfogle is hitting a team-best .372 attack percentage while adding 2.50 kps. She also leads the Big 12 with 1.59 bps. As a team, Baylor is second in the conference averaging 2.65 bps. Sophomore Allison King digs up a team-high 4.22 dps. Jim Barnes is in his sixth season as head coach of the Bears and owns a 90-82 record at Baylor.

Series Info: Baylor leads KU 18-11 in the all-time series history. While KU does have an 8-6 advantage over Baylor at home, the Bears own an 11-2 advantage over the Jayhawks in Waco and have won the last five consecutive matches in Waco. The Jayhawks have topped BU just two times in on the road- 2002 and 2003.

Suffocating Defense

The team dug up a season-high 96 balls versus the Sooners on Wednesday, Sept. 23 marking the most digs by the Jayhawks’ since the team recorded 102 versus Missouri on Oct. 27, 2007.

KU’s strong defensive showing limited Oklahoma to a .192 attack percentage, the eighth time this season Kansas has held an opponent under the .200 mark.

Attempting History

En route to her team-high 28 kills versus OU last Wednesday, Karina Garlington took 79 swings in five sets. It was the most attempts by a Jayhawk since Sara Rome made 83 attempts on Oct. 20, 2001 versus Baylor, also the KU single-match record.

Manda Eyes Record Book

Melissa Manda currently ranks second all-time at KU averaging 3.72 dps. The junior libero will soon crack another career list as she is just 11 digs shy of cracking the top 10 list in career digs and just 18 digs short of becoming the 10th player in Jayhawk volleyball history to record 1,000 career digs.

Bechard Approaching Milestone

Kansas head coach Ray Bechard is just two wins shy of hitting 900 career victories. Bechard, who is in his 12th season at KU, is 898-223 (.801 percent) in his 25th season as a head coach. He spent 13 seasons at Barton County Community College prior to coming to Kansas, where he accumulated a 716-60 mark at the school.

Up Next

The Jayhawks return to Lawrence on Wednesday, Sept. 30 to host Colorado at 6:30 p.m. KU then has back-to-back road games at Texas A&M and Nebraska on Oct. 3 and 7, respectively.