Nov. 24, 2001

Box Score

WACO, Texas - Stevie Nicholas pounded 32 kills and Dana Chuha contributed 71 assists as Baylor closed out its 2001 regular season with a 30-23, 30-23, 29-31, 22-30, 15-11 triumph over Missouri.

The Bears improve to 18-11 on the season and 9-11 in the Big 12 Conference with the win. Missouri falls to 20-10 and 10-10. Both teams will now await word on postseason play, the NCAA Tournament selection will take place Monday.

With her 15th assist on the night, Chuha broke Cory Sivertson's school record for career assists, she now has 4,903 for her career. She also extended her Baylor and Big 12 record for career matches with at least 70 assists to 13. Chuha now owns every possible assist record at Baylor.

Meanwhile, the 32-kill performance marked the seventh of Stevie Nicholas' career in which she has tallied at least 30 kills. That breaks the previous record of six held by Elisha Polk, it took Stevie Nicholas two years to tally seven 30-kill matches, while Polk collected her sixth in the final match of her fourth year.

Baylor enjoyed arguably its best offensive night of the season with a team attacking percentage of .319. That mark ranks second all-time at Baylor for a five-game match and was the highest in Big 12 play this season for the Bears.

Tatiana Kenon, who pounded a career-high 23 kills against Missouri when the Bears took a four-game victory in Columbia earlier this season, tallied 22 kills with only three errors in 40 swings for a .475 percentage. Stevie Nicholas hit .343, and Tisha Schwartz hit .394 with 15 kills and only two errors in 33 attempts. Baylor had 88 kills as a team, a season high and 11th in the program's 24-year history.

"Everybody had a good night," Baylor head coach Brian Hosfeld said. "There were a lot of matches like this all season that were close but didn't go our way. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but hopefully for some of our younger girls it's motivation to take care of the little things in the future."

Baylor pounded Missouri in the first two games, building substantial leads early and coasting to victory in both games. The Bears were poised for the sweep in game three, leading 29-26. However, the Tigers scored five consecutive points to win the game and keep the match alive.

After hitting well over .300 through the first two games, including a .462 clip in game three, the Bears fell flat in the fourth game. Baylor managed just 13 fourth-game kills after tallying at least 20 in each of the first three. Meanwhile, the Tigers erased poor hitting in the first two games with a .395 percentage in game three and a .405 showing in the fourth.

With the score tied 7-7 in the fifth game, the Bears got back-to-back kills from Kenon and Stevie Nicholas to take a 9-7 lead, Baylor never trailed again en route to the 15-11 victory.

Laura Daniela Lloreda led the Bears defensively with 22 digs, her fourth match this season with 20 or more digs. Stevie Nicholas added 13 digs, while Chuha and Sunny Nicholas had 12 each. Stevie Nicholas had four blocks to lead the Bears, Sunny Nicholas had three, and Kenon had three solo blocks. As a team, the Bears tallied 83 assists, 10th in school history.

Baylor said goodbye to six seniors who were playing in the final home match of their careers. Chuha, Kenon, Sunny Nicholas, Kimmy Scott, Carol Selman, and student assistant and former player Kirsten Berg were all honored prior to the match. The class of 2001 leaves with the highest winning percentage of any class in Baylor volleyball history.