Texas Tech women advance out of NCAA regional
PULLMAN, Wash. — Libby Fleming birdied three of her last four holes, helping the Texas Tech women's golf team finish fifth in the NCAA Pullman Regional that concluded Wednesday at Palouse Ridge.
The Red Raiders qualified for the NCAA championship tournament for the fourth time. The event is scheduled for May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Tech, third after Monday's first round and second after Tuesday's second round, had enough breathing room to advance with its highest team score of the tournament on the final day. The Red Raiders shot 2 under par as a team to complete 54 holes at 19-under.
The other teams advancing to the NCAA championship tournament are Stanford, Clemson, Southern California and Baylor. Stanford shot 50-under, Clemson 33-under, USC 26-under and Baylor 23-under.
Stanford teammates Rose Zhang (65) and Sadie Englemann (67) were regional medalist and runner-up at 19-under and 15-under, respectively. Tech freshman Shannon Tan (70) tied for fourth at 13-under, and Red Raiders sophomore Chiara Horder (73) tied for 13th at 6-under.
Tech's Gala Dumez (72) finished 2-under, Fleming (71) 6-over and Lauren Zaretsky (77) 9-over.
Softball
Texas Tech catcher and right fielder Kailey Wyckoff was named the Big 12 freshman of the year and first baseman Ellie Bailey was named first-team all-Big 12, the awards announced Wednesday on the eve of the conference tournament in Oklahoma City.
Wyckoff batted .401 during the regular season with nine home runs and 31 runs batted in. The only other Tech player to win a Big 12 individual award was Kim Martinez, the newcomer of the year in 1997.
Wyckoff, from Katy, also was voted second-team all-Big 12. She ranked sixth in the conference in batting average, fifth in slugging percentage (.755), fifth in onbase-plus-slugging (1.215), 10th in runs (40), seventh in hits (58), third in doubles (15) and first in triples (five).
Bailey hit .342 with 16 homers and 43 RBI.
No. 7 seed Texas Tech (31-21) faces No. 2 seed Texas (40-12-1) in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. The start times for Thursday's three quarterfinal games were moved up on Wednesday, because of a National Weather Service forecast for a 30 to 50 percent chance of rain throughout the day in Oklahoma City.
The seven-team tournament will unfold at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium. Thursday other matchups pit No. 4 seed Baylor (39-15) against No. 5 seed Iowa State (24-29) at 10 a.m. and No. 3 seed Oklahoma State (41-13) against No. 6 seed Kansas (24-26) at 3 p.m.
Texas swept the regular-season series against Tech in Austin, winning 3-2, 4-3 and 8-3.
Baseball
Texas Tech will again be part of the six-team field for the season-opening College Baseball Showdown in 2024 at Globe Life Field in Arlington. The event is scheduled for Feb. 16-18 with each team playing one game per day.
The field announced Wednesday also includes Baylor, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Oregon and Tennessee. The Red Raiders will be making their third appearance in four years. Oregon and Tennessee will be first-timers at the event.
Football
Chris Lemons, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound outside linebacker from Prosper, committed to Texas Tech on Wednesday as a preferred walk-on.
Lemons was a senior on a Prosper team that went 13-2 last season, losing to Duncanville in a Class 6A Division I state semifinal. He's a son of former Texas Tech defensive end Devin Lemons.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech roundup: Women's golf team advances out of NCAA regional
