By Rylee White, Baylor Athletics Communications<\/p>\n
WACO, Texas \u2013<\/p>\n
No. 16 Baylor has a busy week across the southeast, traveling to Orlanda, Fla. to face UCF on Thursday at 6 p.m. before heading back to Texas to match up against Houston on Sunday at 6 p.m. Both matches will stream live on ESPN+. \u00a0– BaylorBears.com –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rylee White, Baylor Athletics Communications WACO, Texas \u2013 No. 16 Baylor has a busy week across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-232689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThe Bears (11-2-2, 6-2 Big 12) enter the weekend coming off a 2-0 home victory over Utah. Baylor recently dropped its second match of the season against then-No. 14 TCU, with its only other loss coming to Texas Tech in the Big 12 opener. This season already marks the most wins of the Michelle Lenard<\/a> era and the program’s highest total since 2018, when the Bears captured the Big 12 title and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals.
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\nUCF (9-2-4, 3-1-4 Big 12) enters the matchup following a 1-1 draw against Houston. The Knights haven’t dropped a match since a 1-0 loss to Arizona in the second week of Big 12 play, which remains their lone conference defeat. UCF has faced just one other ranked opponent this season, earning a 3-2 win over then-No. 17 Arizona State.
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\nBaylor and UCF have met just once before, with the Bears earning a 2-1 victory over the Knights in 2023. The Bears enter this match ranked No. 4 in the RPI, while Central Florida sits at No. 38 in the same poll.
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\nHouston (7-3-5, 2-3-3 Big 12) will host Kansas State on Thursday before welcoming Baylor to the Carl Lewis International Complex on Sunday night. The Cougars enter the weekend following a 1-1 draw against UCF. Their only other meeting with a ranked opponent this season came against then-No. 25 West Virginia, where they fell 3-2 in Morgantown.
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\nThe Bears lead the all-time series 7-1, with Houston’s lone victory coming back in 2006. The teams last met a season ago in Waco, where Baylor secured a dominant 4-0 win. Under coach Lenard, the Bears remain undefeated against the Cougars.
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\nBaylor dropped to No. 16 in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll, released through matches played on Oct. 19. The Bears’ only losses this season have come against two current top-10 opponents, No. 9 TCU and No. 5 Texas Tech, holding their strong RPI ranking of No. 4.
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\nLive stats for the match will be available online<\/a> with updates provided on social media.\u00a0
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\nTo stay up to date throughout the year on all things Baylor Soccer, follow the team on Facebook, X and Instagram: @BaylorFutbol.
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