Texas Tech is college softball’s new villain — and the Red Raiders don’t care
LUBBOCK, Texas — When Texas Tech rolled through the softball postseason last spring, collecting its first-ever Regional and Super Regional titles along the way, the Red Raiders became the darlings of the 2025 Women’s College World Series. Led by pitcher NiJaree Canady’s million-dollar arm — the ace received a lucrative name, image and likeness deal to transfer from Stanford to Tech before her junior season — and signature foot stomp, Texas Tech dazzled die-hards and casual fans, serving notice in a world long dominated by Oklahoma and other SEC schools that the revamped Big 12 was still going to be a factor. The Red Raiders, led by first-year coach Gerry Glasco, lost the championship series to Texas, falling 10-4 to the Longhorns in a decisive Game 3, but promised they weren’t going to be a one-hit wonder.
They’d be back, they said. And they weren’t shy about how they were going to do it. Within weeks of losing in the WCWS, the Red Raiders completed an unprecedented shopping spree to upgrade their roster, plucking many of the best players out of the transfer portal.
With the financial backing of its NIL collective, The Matador Club, Tech signed a bevy of superstar transfers, including All-Americans Taylor Pannell (previously at Tennessee) and Mia Williams (Florida), along with Kaitlyn Terry (UCLA), catcher Jasmyn Burns (Ohio State) and infielder Jackie Lis (Southern Illinois). As a result, Texas Tech has gone from beloved to bad guy in less than a year — quite the 180-degree turn for the 2026 No. 11 seed , which begins its quest Friday for a second straight WCWS appearance when it hosts Marist in the Lubbock Regional.
“I definitely feel like people think we’re villains,” said Terry, who leads the team with a . 471 average and boasts a 1. 30 ERA in 118 1/3 innings pitched.
“We have a target on our back, for sure. We hear it a lot: ‘Oh, they just bought a team. ’ But we know what we’re doing, and what other people say doesn’t matter.
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