Arizona softball takes 8-game win streak to No. 2 Texas Tech for Big 12 showdown

No. 12 Arizona (20-5, 3-0 Big 12) heads to Lubbock, Texas, having won eight in a row, all by run rule, tying a school record. The Red Raiders, meanwhile, have won 14 straight.

“I think it feels good knowing who we are and who we need to be as a team, so that part, you know, understanding that it's 0-0 and we execute our game plan,” said Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe. “We don't worry about what they're necessarily doing, but we prep the same way, have the same type of scouting report, we execute during the week, and then we step in the most confident on the weekend, so that part feels good.

“Obviously, coming off Stanford, we were still kind of trying to find ourselves a little bit, so, I think that part is good in understanding that we just have to be our best selves in whatever situation we're given.”

At Stanford’s DeMarini Invitational, Arizona dropped a couple to then-No. 3 Texas but did upset then-No. 10 Stanford, 4-1.

Since the Stanford trip, Arizona hasn’t lost or even played a game that was a full seven innings.

Texas Tech’s loss was to then-No. 8 Nebraska in the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational in Florida on Feb. 15, 3-2.

“I think they're excited for the challenges,” Lowe said. “I think we did a lot of learning about our group the past two weekends, as far as who we want to be as a team, as individual hitters, as individual players and most of all as a team.

“So now it’s up to play our game when we go to Tech.”

The game features the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week in Texas Tech senior pitcher/first baseman NiJaree Canady and the current Big 12 Player of the Week in Arizona senior utility Sydney Stewart. Canady, who has won national Player of the Year the last two seasons, won Big 12 Pitcher of the Week the last two weeks and threw her second no-hitter of the season against Houston last week.

Stewart hit .667 with two home runs and eight RBIs last week against BYU.

Lowe said it’s very hard to win Player of the Week in the Big 12 right now.

“I think it's been the most competitive it's ever been for conference awards because you like look across all the Big 12 teams and man, people have had monster weekends weekend out,” Lowe said. “(UA sophomore infielder) Sereniti (Trice) has been hitting like .700 a weekend and she can't get a sniff of an award, it’s wild to me, but that's a true testament to our conference, though and the talent within our conference that we're competing in week in and week out so at the end of the day, that's a great thing, but super proud of the numbers she put up.”

Trice is hitting .530 and, in the Hillenbrand Invitational, hit .714.

Arizona leads the all-time series against Texas Tech, 12-5, thanks to a 12-game winning streak against the Red Raiders that ran from 1998 to 2025, but Texas Tech has beaten the Wildcats three times in a row, including 4-0 in the Big 12 championship game last year.

Texas Tech hired Gerry Glasco in June 2024 and led the Red Raiders to their best season ever last season, making the Women’s College World Series for the first time, where they finished second.

Last season, Arizona went 1-2 against Texas Tech at home, winning 2-1 but then falling 10-1 in five innings and 5-2 in the rubber match. The Wildcats finished second in the Big 12 in the regular season, three games back from Texas Tech.

“Well, it's just obviously a place you've never been before, but it's always a great team to play against or we’re always so competitive, especially last year,” said Arizona junior utility Regan Shockey. “They were super competitive, so I'm just looking forward to some good softball.”

This season, Arizona is tied atop the Big 12 standings with a 3-0 record along with Texas Tech, Utah and Baylor.

Last season at the WCWS, Texas Tech topped Ole Miss 1-0, where Arizona sophomore outfielder Addison Duke played last year. The Rebels knocked Arizona out of the tournament, going 2-1 against the Wildcats last year in the Tucson Regional.

“I got to see them last year at the College World Series, but they're a great team and I think it's going to be a good test early in the season,” Duke said.

Texas Tech was 29-21 and eighth in the Big 12 in 2024 before the NIL money came rolling in and Glasco and Canady got there. The Red Raiders lured Canady to Lubbock from Stanford with what was reportedly the first $1 million deal in softball.

Texas Tech had seven of the 18 players on the All-Big 12 preseason softball team, and all seven of those are transfers.

“It's been fast,” Lowe said about the Red Raiders’ transformation into a softball power.

“I played for Gerry in the pro league, so I mean they do a good job building a team and developing and they have a very aggressive style of play so it's gonna be a really good challenge.”

Lowe played for Glasco on the USSSA Pride.

Among those transfers is junior pitcher/utility Kaitlyn Terry from UCLA, where she was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and All-West Region.

“She's a great player, I have a lot of respect for how she competes on both sides of the ball and requires our best effort in both sides of the ball as well,” Lowe said. “So making adjustments at the plate and then being able to adjust also on the mound to make sure we keep good hitters off balance all weekend.”

Terry went to Phoenix Greenway but Salpointe Catholic, which included current Arizona sophomore infielder Anyssa Wild, denied the two-time Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year a state championship at Hillenbrand in 2023.

Extra bases

— The NCAA’s RPI debuted this week and Arizona is No. 23 as of press time after starting 25th on Monday. The Big 12 has five in the top 26: No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 24 Baylor, No. 25 Oklahoma State and No. 26 UCF.

ASU comes in at 37th.

— As far as the human rankings go, Arizona moved up to No. 12 in the USA Softball poll, up two spots. They stayed No. 13 in the NFCA’s coaches’ poll but moved up a spot in the D1 Softball rankings to 13th and up a slot in the Softball America rankings to No. 17.

Texas Tech is No. 2 or No. 3 in all four of those polls.