Red Raider Softball to Host Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic
On the heels of being swept in a midweek series by Texas-El Paso, Texas Tech softball returns to action this weekend as they host Tulsa and Mississippi Valley State in the 5th annual Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic.
The Red Raiders are 22-1 all-time in the tournament named in honor of former Texas Tech administrator Jeannine McHaney.
Texas Tech will receive a good test this weekend from Tulsa as the Golden Hurricane entered the 2015 season ranked among the top 25 in both preseason polls.
Tulsa, in its first season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, has advanced to an NCAA Regional in each of the past four seasons.
Texas Tech's other weekend opponent, Mississippi Valley State, is another regular in the postseason as the Devilettes have won the SWAC Conference Tournament eight times since 2004.
Mississippi Valley last advanced to an NCAA Regional in 2013 when current Tech director of operations Brooke Reed was an assistant coach with the program.Texas Tech will close out non-conference play next week with a trip to the greater northwest where the Red Raiders will face Seattle University on March 18 and then No. 18 Washington in a doubleheader the following day. The Red Raiders return to Rocky Johnson Field on March 27-29 to open Big 12 Conference play against No. 6 Oklahoma.
About Jeannine McHaney
Jeannine McHaney, long considered the driving force behind women's athletics at Texas Tech, is the namesake of this weekend's tournament which, in its fifth year, has become an annual tradition at Rocky Johnson Field. McHaney joined the Texas Tech faculty in 1966 in a number of roles as she was a professor in the physical education department in addition to serving as the university's director of women's intramural sports and the school's first volleyball coach, a position she held for nine seasons. Following the establishment of the Women's Athletic Department in 1975, McHaney was selected as the program's first athletics director until the men's and women's departments eventually combined. She remained a top athletics administrator throughout the next two decades until her passing in 1994. Each year, a student-athlete from each women's program is selected as a Jeannine McHaney Scholar with one of those eventually being crowned the McHaney Scholar Student-Athlete of the Year. The award winner exemplifies the standards established by McHaney in the areas of academic achievement and athletic excellence as well as service to the community and the university.
[via Texas Tech]