Monday (midday) Matador: championships, awards, and sweeping the competition

Championships usually mean long nights and long nights usually mean late mornings. Here’s a definitely late Monday Morning Matador for you.

Women’s soccer starts strong, but has close loss to TCU

Coach Stone and the Lady Raiders started off the 2019 season with a double header against West Texas A&M and Abilene Christian. Both of the matches allowed virtually the entire roster to see the pitch. Against West Texas A&M, Savanna Jones netted two goals off of three shots-on-goal, Kirsten Davis assisted the first. Jen Rose also had her first career goal with Texas Tech, and Demi Koulizakis scored off a brilliant header. The Lady Buffs were fairly resilient, though, as they denied Tech the shutout by converting with under a minute remaining; it wouldn’t be enough though as Texas Tech rolled West Texas A&M 4-1. The following match against Abilene Christine fell in a similar manner. Jade King along with Brittany Martin were the only two Lady Raiders to score but the defense held true and kept it a shutout, 2-0. Against TCU on Saturday, it was a slow first half but the Horned Frogs were able to inch ahead after the start of the second. The lead was cut shortly though from a beautiful kick off of Jade King that equalized in the 55’. TCU would respond in the 77’ and the 2-1 lead would go on to be the final. Texas Tech is 2-1 on the season.

Track and field competes hard but falls overall from the No. 1 spot

Competition at the NCAA Indoor Championship Saturday ended with the Texas Tech men’s team finishing tied for sixth (with Florida State) while the women’s finished 15th. Wes Kittley said that “We did a good job on Saturday with two national champions and a runner-up. We failed to fill up lanes with our preliminaries Friday, and that did not help us. I’m proud of those that competed Saturday and made it to the podium.”

Men’s basketball are Big 12 Champions

The No. 7 Texas Tech Red Raiders are Big 12 Conference regular-season champions after advancing their winning streak to 9 following an 80-73 victory over Iowa State. This is the first Big 12 Championship that Texas Tech basketball has claimed and the first championship since 1996 in the Southwest Conference. Jarrett Culver scored a career-high 31 points against the Cyclones which helped him win the Big 12’s Player of the Year Award. Following suit, Coach Beard was named the Big 12’s Coach of the Year in a tough conference with reputable arguments for most. Up next for the 26-4 Red Raiders is the Big 12 Tournament where they will await the winner of the Oklahoma - West Virginia match up

Women’s basketball breaks records, bows out of tournament

In the opening round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, Texas Tech took Oklahoma to the wood shed behind a fabulous 40-point performance from Brittany Brewer. Brewer, highlighted by a season of stellar performance, was named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team. This is the first time in program history that a Lady Raider has won first team honors. After scoring 104 points on the Sooners, the Red Raiders set the record for most points scored in a Big 12 tournament game since the Big 12 began. It’s the second time that Texas Tech has scored over 100 points this season. Following Oklahoma, Texas Tech took on Baylor. Despite three Lady Raiders keeping pace with the Bears through the first quarter and shortly in the second, Baylor turned on the jets and Texas Tech couldn’t come back; eliminated from the tournament 100-61.

Baseball sweeps Wichita State

Now 11-3 on the season, Texas Tech put up 42 runs over the weekend - seemingly making up for a lackluster offensive showing in Frisco. The Red Raiders outscored the Shockers 12-2 in the opener, 15-10 on Saturday and 15-4 on Sunday. That marks the third time this season that Tadlock’s crew put up 15(+) runs in a game. Up next for the Red Raiders they will play in Austin against a very good Texas team on Friday.

Softball sweeps Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic

I’m not sure you understand, but our softball team is good. Like, really good. This weekend they hosted Gardner-Webb and Northern Colorado in the Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic and came out swinging. With 23 hits over the course of the two games, Texas Tech run-ruled Gardner-Webb, 10-2 and outplayed Northern Colorado, 7-2. The two victories improved their win streak to 11 straight games and are now 24-1.