Sept. 4, 2001

Stats

WACO, Texas - Senior setter Dana Chuha amassed a career-high 19 digs and three Bears reached double figures in kills here Tuesday night as Baylor defeated Texas-Arlington 30-21, 30-26, 30-24 in women's volleyball action. With the victory, the Bears improve to 4-0, UTA falls to 2-3.

Baylor posted at least 17 kills in all three games, including a 20-spot in the third game. The Bears hit .326 (19-5-43) in the first game and .333 (20-4-48) in game three.

"We were still a little out of synch tonight," head coach Brian Hosfeld said. "There's a certain rhythm needed in every aspect of the game. We never really had that tonight, but we've got a couple of days before the next match to work that out."

Chuha, the two-time defending NCAA assists champion, paced the Bears to a team attacking percentage of .307 on the night, Baylor's best attacking night of the young season. She collected 46 assists, but it was her defensive play that stood out the most.

"That comes both from scheme and from Dana working to get to more balls," Hosfeld said. "A lot of that is out of necessity, with the rally scoring, it's a point now. In the past, we could rotate her to the net and get her involved in the transition sooner. Now, we need her back there."

Stevie Nicholas put away a match-high 14 kills and chipped in with 17 digs. Sunny Nicholas finished with 10 kills against no errors for a .556 attacking percentage. Sophomore Tisha Schwartz posted eight kills with only two errors, hitting .375 on the night. Baylor had seven total blocks. Sunny Nicholas led the way with four, while Schwartz and Kenon added three each.

As a team, Baylor hit .307, the highest mark of the season for the Bears, meanwhile, Texas-Arlington hit just .185 on the night. The Bears out-killed the Mavericks 56-41, out-dug them 65-58 and tallied nine service aces while allowing only five. Every Bear that served had at least one service ace, led by Sunny Nicholas' three, and every Bear that played back row had at least seven digs.

Baylor will return to action this weekend, hosting the Baylor Classic. The Bears will North Texas at 3 p.m. Friday, followed by a 7 p.m. contest with Rhode Island. Saturday, Baylor will square off with Texas-Pan American at 3 p.m. and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 7 p.m.