Red Raider Ravioli: there’s life after football

Ciao a tutti!

We’re less than a week away from the Birmingham Bowl, that will mark the end of our beloved football season. After this, a heavy curtain will wrap the Jones AT&T Stadium, and we’ll have to wait until next September to blow away the dust and wake up from our hibernation.

Surprisingly, there’s an entire world of other sports in the Texas Tech galaxy, and their deserve our tifo (cheer). Maybe some results aren’t top tier, but who cares, football hasn’t had an awesome season, too.

First of all, I’d like to mention the volleyball team, that ended its season on a sweet note. It’s a young team coached by a young and capable coach, Tony Graystone, who had a rough first season in 2016 (10-21, 0-16 Big 12) but emerged late in 2017.
The team had its first winning season since 2001 and gained a spot in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). These young girls splendidly performed on this occasion, as they had four victories before falling to Ole Miss in the tournament’s final.
This team has many improvements margins, but it plays in a conference that sent 4 out of 9 teams to the National tournament, so it’s a promising but difficult road.

Talking about sports that will be played in next months, there are the two basketball teams. One is doing very well, while the other is not expected to be a factor during this season. In fact, women currently are 4-5 and suffered a couple of hard losses, but we’re discussing a young team with many freshmen and sophomores, and that’s doing interesting things in the recruitment for the next season.

Contrarily, men’s team is intriguing, as it’s 9-1 and probably will start the conference schedule 11-1, considering neither Florida Atlantic nor Abilene Christian at the moment is comparable to the Red Raiders.

Big 10 is a very competitive conference, and there’s no easy game to be played, but Texas Tech seems to have the right mix between youth and experience, between athleticism and technique to target the Tournament, and maybe to win a game, a fact that’s missing since 2005.

Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

In February, also the baseball team will start its season, and there are a lot of expectations about it. As you all certainly remember, in 2017 the Red Raiders won the Big 12 regular season and lost to Sam Houston State in the NCAA regionals.
Coach Tim Tadlock, who started his tenure as head coach in 2013, runs a program that had some recent success, and expectations are high also for 2017.

So, there a lot to see in Lubbock while football’s sleeping, as I can also add women softball and soccer, and many other sports. Consequently, the door’s always open to who’s interested in Texas Tech athletics.

Forza Red Raiders!