Leading Off
Just flat out awesome. The ladies tennis team demolished Texas, 4-1 yesterday in the Sweet Sixteen to advance to the Elite Eight (official site). Just an incredible effort and ahead of them, they’ve got the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils on Saturday. Again, this is the most underrated program on campus, what head coach Toddy Petty does year after year is nothing short of amazing.
The softball team dropped their first game of the NISC Tournament, 9-4 to UT Arlington, which was Texas Tech’s first loss of this double-elimination tournament, and then came back and beat Central Arkansas in game two 9-0 (official site). That means that they’ll play UT Arlington again, today at noon, and if Texas Tech wins, they’ll have to play UT Arlington again at 3:00 p.m. because UTA hasn’t lost yet.
The bats came alive in our 9-0 run-rule victory over UCA. Take a look at the highlights as we advance to face UT Arlington for the #NISC regional final on Friday. #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/TaL9pQBPJ6
— Texas Tech Softball (@TexasTechSB) May 18, 2018
Former Lady Raider Noel Johnson will be inducted into the Texas Association Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame 2018 class (official site).
Texas Tech Baseball
Congrats to Josh Jung and Grant Little who were named as semifinalists for the Dick Howser Trophy, which goes to the top player in college baseball (official site).
Texas Tech took game 1 of the series with Oklahoma State, 9-4. Please make sure and check out the series thread for highlights and links to the box score, etc.
Texas Tech Basketball
Zhaire Smith joined ESPN2’s NBA Draft coverage and that’s the most I’ve ever heard Smith talk and he very much loosened up towards the end of the interview, so stick with it if you do watch it. And yesterday, Smith had a 41.5″ vertical jump and a 33″ standing vertical, which was first for his position (Twitter).
Look who it is!@Zhaire_Smith hopped on the set during ESPN2’s @NBADraft Combine coverage to talk about his memorable freshman year, and what’s ahead. Check it out! #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/SY8GuqcPRe
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) May 17, 2018
Texas Tech Football
Texas Tech announced a home-and-home series with Oregon State to begin the 2025 season in Lubbock and the 2026 game to be in Corvallis (official site). I am relatively uninterested in games that are 8 or 9 years away, but am glad that it’s a Power Five opponent.
RedRaiderSports’ Ben Golan has a quick Q&A with incoming freshman running back Sarodorick Thompson.