Tech softball team hosts McHaney Classic

The Texas Tech softball team, which is on a five-game win streak, will host Texas-El Paso and Tarleton State from Friday through Sunday in the 10th annual Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic at Rocky Johnson Field.

Tech (12-8) swept a three-game series from New Mexico last weekend and started the win streak the weekend before with wins against the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Abilene Christian University.

Tech will host UTEP (4-8) at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday. Saturday's schedule has Tarleton State (9-15) against UTEP at noon, Tech against UTEP at 2 p.m. and Tech against Tarleton State at 4 p.m.

Then the Red Raiders play two against Tarleton State at noon Sunday.

Tech pitchers Erin Edmoundson leads the Big 12 in strikeouts with 52 and games started with nine. The lefthander from Deer Park is second in innings pitched (59), third in complete games (four) and shutouts (two) and fourth in appearances (13).

She and Missy Zoch are tied for eight in the conference in wins. Zoch is 5-2 with a 2.89 earned-run average, and Edmoundson is 5-4 with a 2.85 ERA.

The games are Tech's last before it opens Big 12 play next weekend against Baylor.

Men's tennis

No. 26 Texas Tech will try to extend a six-match win streak when the Red Raiders face Rice and Florida Atlantic in the 62nd Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational in Houston.

Tech (8-2) plays Rice (7-6) at noon Friday and Florida Atlantic (5-6) at noon Saturday.

Rice's top assistant coach is former Tech star Bojan Szumanski, who set the school records for career victories in singles and doubles. The Owls have won five of their past six matches.

Tech senior Ilgiz Valiev has won seven singles matches in a row, boosting his record to 8-1. He was named the Big 12 player of the week on Tuesday.

Women's tennis

Texas Tech takes a three-match win streak, all by shutout, into a pair of Big 12 road matches this weekend.

The Lady Raiders (10-3, 3-0) visit Iowa State (8-4, 0-2) at 3 p.m. Friday and West Virginia (3-2, 0-2) at 9 a.m. Sunday. Iowa State has a 13-match home win streak dating to April 2019.

Last week, Tech beat Kansas State 7-0 and Kansas and SMU 4-0 in home matches. Lady Raiders freshman Lisa Mays, the current Big 12 player of the week, is 11-2 in singles matches this year, and freshman Margarita Skriabina is 10-0.

In doubles, Kaitlin Staines and Mays are 6-2 this year.

Volleyball

Texas Tech concludes a three-match Metroplex road trip with matches at 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at SMU. Both are on ESPN+.

The Red Raiders (7-13) were swept on Wednesday at North Texas, losing 25-23, 25-22, 25-17. That dropped them to 2-2 in a spring-semester schedule of eight non-conference road matches against other programs in the state.

SMU (8-4) has won three in a row.

Samantha Sanders leads Tech with 251 kills, and three teammates are in triple digits: Caitlin Dugan, Brooke Kanas and Reagan Cooper with 163, 154 and 100, respectively.

Soccer

Texas Tech continues its spring-semester non-conference schedule with a match against LSU at 2 p.m. Saturday at Texas Woman's University in Denton.

Tech (4-5-2) went 2-5-2, all against Big 12 opponents, in the fall. Since play resumed two weeks ago, the Red Raiders have beaten University of the Southwest 7-0 at home and Alabama 1-0 at the First Bossier Classic in Louisiana.

LSU (6-8-3) was 2-7-2 in the fall in the SEC conference schedule and conference tournament. The Tigers are 4-1-1 this semester, mostly against nearby non-conference opponents, but they're coming off a 2-1 victory Sunday against Florida at a neutral site.

After Saturday, Tech has two matches remaining: March 28 at North Texas and April 17 at Baylor.

Track & field

Texas Tech begins its outdoor season Friday and Saturday at the Wes Kittley Invitational hosted by Abilene Christian University.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the cancellation of the entire outdoor season last year. As a result, several seniors who completed their indoor track and field eligibility in 2020 remained with their programs for the past year to use their last season of eligibility for outdoor track and field.

Among Tech athletes scheduled to compete this weekend for the first time since the 2020 indoor season are D'Jenne Egharevba, Kaylee Hinton, Chinne Okoronkwo, Karayme Bartley, Justin Hall and Keion Sutton.

Quarter-miler Sara Limp, who suffered a season-ending injury at the 2019 Big 12 indoor championships, and Werner Bouwer, a javelin thrower who does not compete indoors, are entered in their first outdoor meet in two years.

The ACU meet is named for the Texas Tech coach who spent 22 years as a track athlete and coach for the Wildcats. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Avalanche-Journal has a results deadline of 7 p.m. each game/match night. Area college games ending after 7 p.m. will run that night on lubbockonline.com/sports and the following day — as space allows — in the printed sports section.