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Show - •asms SPORTS www.dailyutahchronicle.com Thursday, November 6,2008 Saturda Frida Thursday Volleyball Soccer 7 Football Women's Tennis Men's Hoops Women's Hoops Southern Oregon § Utah (Exhibition) 2 p.m. Huntsman Center Utah@ TCU/San Diego State No. 24 Utah vs. San Diego State No.11TCU@ No. 10 Utah Utah@ ASU Invitational Grand Valley State § Utah (Exhibition) 1p.m. Las Vegas, Nev. 8p.m. San Diego, Calif. 6 p.m. Rice-Eales Stadium All Day Tempe, Ariz. 2 p.m. Huntsman Center VOLLEYBALL Baird a leader on and off the court PlajS earned her share of recognition since she started playing volleyball 12 years ago when she was in the fifth grade. Watching her older sister play volleyball at Ricks College was one of Lori Baird's biggest inspirations for starting her own volleyball career. "I would go watch her games and it made me really want to play," Baird said. She started playing in recreation leagues before transitioning to the more competitive club level three years later. Since then, Baird has racked up an impressive list of records and honors including a handful of high school re- flight Paige Fieldsted STAFF W R I T E R Humble is not a word used to describe most athletes. For some, it's all about recognition, awards and media attention—but not so for Utah volleyball player Lori Baird. The 6-foot-2-inch Murray native has JYIERCOBB/The Daily Utah (hronkle After high school, Lori Baird decided to stay close to home and play volleyball for the Utes. Baird has become a team leader during the season. cords, being named to the Ai national team after last season, several player of the week awards and most recently, becoming the ioth member of Utah's r,ooo-kill club. But to Baird, all the recognition means little. "It is always kind of cool, but that's not what I focus on," Baird said. "It is in the past and if I'm not ready to play every single day, they don't mean any-' thing. You have to work hard every day and keep moving forward." Baird knew very early in her volleyball career that she someday wanted to play at the college level. Shortly after seeing Baird play for the first time during her sophomore year of high school, head coach Beth Launiere knew she wanted her to play for Utah. "I saw her athleticism and could tell that her skills were developing," Launiere said. "We offered her a spot on the team very early and were confident that she would be great for our team." For Baird, the decision to become a Ute was a relatively easy one. She was comfortable with the rest of the team, she had played for former assistant coach Matt McShane at the club level, and the U was close to home. While lots of student-athletes want to get as far away from home as possible, Baird was excited to have the opportunity to play near the people she grew up with. "I've had lots of people ask me why I stayed so close, but I'm a family person," she said. "Having family and friends there to support you makes it more fun to play." Since joining the Ute lineup three years ago, Baird has been leading the team by example, averaging 2.64 kills and 1.40 blocks per set in her first three seasons at the U. This year, during her senior season, Baird is still leading the team with 3.13 SOCCER kills and 146 blocks per set, and her example has been an inspiration to younger players on the team. "Lori is amazing and I really look up to her," said middle blocker Karolina Bartkowiak. "She can hit anything and has been my role model in the middle. Whenever I'm struggling, I'm like, 'Lori show me how you do this, or how do you do that.'" Despite being a natural when it comes to showing younger players how it's done, Baird has just recently emerged as a vocal leader of the team. "She has really stepped up her leadership role this season," said outside hitter Kathryn Haynie. "She expects things of other players and pushes everyone around her to get better, but she doesn't expect anything she won't do herself." Baird has also shown her leadership by not getting down on herself when she is having a rare off night. As one of the top hitters in the Mountain West Conference, Utah's opponents have often made it a top priotiry to shut Baird down. "When New Mexico put up a tough block on Lori, she responded by having one of her best serving and digging nights of the season," Launiere said. "That is great leadership, finding a way to contribute and not getting down." Baird not only works hard on the court, but is also one of the most disciplined players off the court. "She is in such great shape, but she still does extra conditioning and pays attention to what she eats," Haynie said. "She is focused on whatever it takes for her to be ready to work hard every day." While Baird's game and leadership skills have improved significantly throughout her career, she said volleyball has also taught her many important life lessons, with one of the lori Baird At a Glance: Height: 6-f00t-2 Position: Middle Blocker Favorite Food Mom's homemade lasagna Favorite Type of Music: Country Hobbies outside volleyball: Playing the Piano Favorite season: Spring biggest being added responsibility. With school, volleyball practice and other obligations, Baird has had to juggle a lot of things. "You have to be on time to practice, be physically and mentally ready, know what is expected from the coaches," Baird said. "There are also homework and church activities and road trips. I've really learned about time management." With less than a year until graduation, Baird is unsure what lies ahead after her volleyball career at the U comes to an end. Baird, who is majoring in social work, hopes to get a job in child protective services but hasn't ruled out the option of playing volleyball overseas. "Nothing is really set in stone," she said. "It just depends on where I am in my life when I graduate." Either way, it seems Baird will continue to be a soft-spoken person who lets her actions and examples do most of the talking. p.fieldsted@chronicle.utah.edu VOLLEYBALL Utes seek revenge against TCU Utah to face Aztecs Bryan Chouianrd STAFF W R I T E R ; It's no "Blackout," but the No. 2 seeded Utes are going to take on TCU with major implications on the line. Utah will seek revenge tomorrow against the Horned Frogs in the semifinals of this year's Mountain West Conference Tournament. Yesterday, the No. 3 seeded Horned Frogs knocked out the No. 6 seeded San Diego State Aztecs and ended SDSU's 2008 campaign. TCU struck first when Jordan Calhoun juried a shot in the left-hand corner in the 31st minute. But the Aztecs weren't going down without a fight. In the 51st minute of play, SDSU leveled the score when a shot off the Foot of sophomore Cat Walker found the back of the net, which eventually sent the game into overtime. TCU's Jackie Torda finished off the Aztecs in the 97th minute off a rebound of a TCU corner kick, beating the SDSU keeper and sending the Horned Frogs into the semifinals. This will be the second time Utah and TCU square off this season— the first time these two teams met was in October when the Utes trav^ eled down to Fort Worth, Texas. After shutting out TCU in the first half, Utah gave up two costly goals in the second period of play and couldn't manage a single shot on net against the Horned Frogs, the Utes were sent home on the \yrong end of a 2-0 shutout. :-' Since the TCU loss, Utah has No. 3 TCU Horned-Frogs (14-3-2) gone 3-0 and is riding a wave of momentum into its first game of the conference tournament. "I feel we have grown and improved as a team in every area of the game since the beginning of conference play," said head coach Rich Manning. "We have more confidence and experience and I think that has played a big part in thenimprovement." Leading the Utah offensive attack against TCU will be sophomore forward Lauren Hair who earlier this week was named to the AllMountain West Second Team. "(Hah*) is in good scoring form and is scoring the kinds of goals that we expect her to score," Manning said. "She is playing to her strengths and not trying to do things that are uncomfortable for her." Hair finished conference play with three goals and eight points but was not the only Ute to be recognized by the MWC. Freshman defender Lauren Porter was also named to the all-MWC second team alongside Hair for her pair of goals as well as an outstanding first season playing center-back for the Utes. Both Kelly Isleib and Katy Reineke were also named all-MWC first team members this week. This was Isleib's second straight season receiving the honor of first team allconference. She received the honors by becoming Utah's all-time leader in assists with 23 in her career. In Reineke's final year with the team, the senior earned her first Soccer No.2Utah Utes (10-8-2) "[Thursday, Nov. 6 " Las Vegas, Nevada. • 1 Horned-Frog notes: TCU will look to MWC Freshman of the Year, Jordan Calhoun to spearhead the Horned Frog attack. Calhoun is not only coming off a performance against SDSU where she found the back of the net but the freshman was also able to beat Utah ' -per Hannah Turpen in the team's first mep ,ug earlier this year. Ute notes: Utah is 58-19-8 all-time in Mountain West Conference play but were knocked out of last season's tournament in the semi-finals by eventual champions UNLV by a score of 2-0. This game will mark the first time these two teams have matched up in the conference tournament. -Food for thought: Utah had four all-Mountain West Conference players this ^season. Junior midfielder Kelly Isleib earngd her third career all-MWC award. in final road swing Paige Fieldsted STAFF W R I T E R AARON SCHWENDIMEN/flif to///l/J<?hflwOTif Kelly Isleib was named to the all-MWC first team earlier this week. Isleib and the Utes will face TCU today in the second round of the MWC tournament. ever all-conference recognition, doing so by leading the Utes in points during conference play. Reineke was able to find the back of the net three times as well as being credited with two assists, giving her eight points by the time the season was over. Manning will look to his all-conference performers to lead his team as a unit both offensively and defensively. "If we are going to be successful we can't rely only on one or two players offensively or defensively," Manning said. "It really has to be a team effort. We need everyone out there to feel that they can be the player to make a big play or score a big goal. When everyone is in that mindset, it bodes well for our team." Utah kicks off its 2008 tournament run today at 1 p.m. in Las Vegas. You can watch the Utes on The Mtn. b.chouinard@ chronicle.utah.edu The No. 24 Utah women's volleyball team is facing its last road trip of the season. First stop—San Diego, Calif., to take on the Aztecs. With only five conference games left, every game is more important than ever if the Utes hope to get an invitation to the NCAA tournament. "We have big games coming up and we know it," said head coach Beth Launiere. "But we can't focus on that, we just have to take it one at a time,." The Utes are preparing like they always do: working hard in practice, watching game film and scouting out the next opponent. "We've gone in strong to practice, knowing we can't be tired or weak, but have to focus on doing our job," said sophomore Karolina Bartkowiak After spending the past couple of weeks focusing on floor defense—passing and serving—the Utes have no big issues that need to be dealt with and are focusing on fine-tuning everything "We've talked about being blue-collar and just working really hard on the little things that are going to make us that much better," Launiere said. Statistically, the Utes are ahead of the Aztecs when it comes to kills, assists, digs, service aces and blocks per set. Regardless of what the statistics say, the Utes know they have their work cut out for them if they want to beat San Diego State. "They are playing great volleyball right now," Launiere said. "They have a lot of young players that have been getting better and more confident as the season goes on. We're going to have to be 100 percent prepared." SDSU is led offensively and defensively by Lauren Salisbury with 3.05 kills and 1.04 blocks per set, while Michelle Ferrer holds down the back row with 3.53 digs per set. Utah continues to be led by middle blocker Lori Baird, averaging 3.13 kills and 146 blocks per set. Keisha Fisher is the leader on the back row with 3.08 digs per set. After taking on the Aztecs, the Utes will head to Sin City for their last away game of the season against the UNLV Rebels. Utah, however, isn't looking that far ahead, as they are dealing with SDSU first. "We're going to focus on San Diego and then we'll focus on UNLV," said senior Kathryn Haynie. "We know these games are big but we have to treat them just like any other game and come out with a win." p.fieldsted@ chronicle.utah.edu THIEN SOK/ftf Daily Ulah(hvolclt Kathryn Haynie and Cinthia Silva collide as they go for the ball. The Utes are going on their final road trip of the season facing conference opponents SDSU and UNLV. |
