TCU Olympic Sports Update: Postseason Play, Upset Wins and More Baylor Talk

I usually start these updates by doing a quick summary of what was happening the last time we checked in on our Olympic sports competitors.  For those of you who don't have time to read the link (it's great, i mean really good writing, but I understand you're busy people), that's exactly what I'll do here.  It was, like every other week in a TCU fans life, one that focused largely on Baylor and beating them in competitions of athletic prowess.  The volleyball team had just topped them in a thrilling tie-breaker victory and Soccer and Equestrian were set to face off on them over the weekend.  Cross country and tennis were both preparing for the start of postseason play, while swimming and diving and rifle were off to strong starts in their respective seasons.

I've gone pretty deep into my philosophy towards these sports in previous updates.  Basically, I look at these sports the way British documentary filmmakers look at the Iberian lynx.  They are beautiful and fierce, but also mysterious and rarely seen (on cable). They exist in a place that, in my mind, looks and feels a lot like the Scottish farm where James Bond lives in Skyfall.  It's a place that I like to call, the Land of Under-appreciated Athletics.

VOLLEYBALL UPSETS NO. 2 TEXAS After watching the big win against Baylor a couple of weeks ago I thought "It's too bad we have to play Texas next week".  I loss would have brought the team's record to 5-4 in Big XII play, which is not bad, but this team has potential to be better than not bad and they've been playing like it.  It took us five sets to take down unranked Baylor.  It took us three to smash No. 2 Texas into submission on 10/28/15.  Both games were home games for the Frogs, and both were sold out.  That  means that there were over 2,000 fans at each game.  If you haven't been to a home game, I suggest you go because the atmosphere is truly electric.

Unfortunately, the next game against Kansas State was on the road, were the Frogs have been far less effective. They lost that game 3-1 on 10/31/15, after beating Kansas State 3-2 at home earlier this year on 10/3/15.  Overall, the team has a record of 16-6 (6-4 in Big XII play), going 7-1 at home and 4-5 on the road (5-0 in neutral site games). They are currently in fourth place in the Big XII, one game behind Iowa State, who they host this Saturday on 11/7/15.  There's plenty of room on the bandwagon for everyone.

SOCCER OPENS BIG XII POSTSEASON PLAY AGAINST BAYLOR Coming off of three consecutive road losses to begin the month of October, the soccer team needed something good to happen.  Home games against Baylor and Oklahoma on 10/23/15 and 10/25/15 gave them an opportunity to do so and they took advantage of it.  The Baylor game was postponed a few days, but ultimately TCU fought each match to a tie and then tied Kansas a few days later (10/30/15).  With a regular season record of 8-7-3 overall and 2-3-3 in the Big XII, the Frogs opened up the Big XII tournament as the 7th seed taking on 2nd seeded Baylor.

In their final home game of the season on 10/27/15, TCU battled Baylor through 90 minutes of regulation and two overtime periods.  Neither team scored until Baylor got the game's first goal in the 67th minute, then TCU's Makenzie Koch scored the equalizer in the 85th minute for the last score of the match.  The first round of the Big XII Tournament happened to set up a rematch between TCU and Baylor.  The Frogs were up 1-0 after scoring in the 67th minute, but Baylor was able to score in the final minutes of regulation to force overtime.  After two scoreless overtime periods, TCU ultimately lost in the shootout 7-6.  The Bears move on to the second round, and the Frogs will head home to begin their offseason.

TCU WOMEN'S GOLF FINISHES UP FALL PLAY IN SAN ANTONIO The men's golf team finished up their season in mid-October by winning first place at the Connecticut Cup in record breaking fashion.  Like, they broke the tournament record for this course.  Like, shattered it.  The women's team wrapped up fall play last month as well, claiming sixth place out of 15 teams at the Alamo Invitational on 10/25/15-10/27/15.  It was a little disappointing  because they were in third place heading into the final day of the tournament, but hey, they did beat Baylor (finished 10th).  No Frogs managed to score in the top 10 overall in this tournament, but overall they have had a pretty good fall.  Out of the five tournaments that they have played so far, they finished as high as second place twice and only finished outside of the top 10 once.

TCU CROSS COUNTRY FINISHES UP BIG XII CHAMPIONSHIPS Both the men's and women's teams were up in Stillwater this last weekend for the Big XII Championship.  It's fair to say that both teams have had mixed success this season.  In the competition, the men's team finished ninth in the 8,000-meter race and the women's team placed sixth in the 10K.  This concludes the season for the cross-country team and we wish them well in their offseason.

TENNIS TEAMS COMPETE IN REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS The men's and women's tennis teams each competed in the USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championships in late October.  The men's team saw Guillermo Nunez in the singles competition and Hudson Blake and Reese Stadler in the doubles competition all win their way into the quarterfinals before being defeated by opponents from SMU. Cameron Norrie will advance to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships on Nov. 12-15 after winning the Oracle ITA Masters earlier this year. For the women's team, Seda Arantekin and Caroline Wegener made it to the semi-finals in the doubles competition and Aleksandra Zenovka made it to the quarter finals in the singles competition before being beaten by opponents from Texas A&M.

SWIMMING AND DIVING SPLITS LATE OCTOBER HOME MEETS The men's and women's teams hosted meets against SMU and Kansas on 10/28/15 and 10/31/15 respectively.  The men's team beat SMU is a close 152-148 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season. The victory earned them a spot in the rankings at no. 44 nationally.  Freshman Tommy Thach was the hero of the day as he brought TCU back from a deficit to take the lead when he took first place in the 200 IM.  He also anchored the winner-take-all 400-yard freestyle relay and was named a TCU Muscle Milk athlete of the week.  The women's team fell to 2-2 on the season after losing 178-119 to Kansas in their Big XII opener, despite earning four first place times in the loss.  Both the men's and women's teams will continue their seasons on Nov. 6th in Ames, Iowa against Iowa State and South Dakota.

EQUESTRIAN TEAM DROPS TOP TEN NAILBITER AGAINST BAYLOR The no. 6 Horned Frogs and no. 3 Bears fought their way to a 9-9 draw on 10/23/15, but Baylor edged out TCU on overall points to win the meet.  In that competition, Molly Peddicord earned her first MOP in Equetation on the Flat of the season and Carley Montemuro earned her second MOP of the season in Reining.  On Halloween, the team took out their frustrations over the close conference loss out on South Dakota State in a 12-5 victory.  In the process, three more TCU athletes earned MOP honors: Kari Hancock (Equitation on the Flat), Molly Peddicord (Equitation over Fences) and Rylee Morgan (Horsemanship). The team will travel to Kansas State on 11/13/15 to continue conference play.

RIFLE TEAM STAYS PERFECT AND TOPS 4,700 IN LAST TWO COMPETITIONS So, before this year, the TCU rifle team had only scored 4,700 points or higher once, on 11/17/12.  In both of the last two competitions, TCU has scored over 4,700 points.  The first instance was in a win over Nebraska in Fort Worth on 10/25/15.  Among many other strong showings, Mindy Miles shot a personal best in smallbore to pull TCU away from the competition. On Halloween the rifle team traveled to Air Force where they again shot over 4,700 points on their way to winning their sixth competition of the year to stay undefeated. Hannah Black was the top performer last weekend as she finished first in smallbore, second in air rifle, and first among all shooters in total score.

Thanks to www.gofrogs.com for most of the stats and information in this article.