Tech (15-1) will face No. 17 Oklahoma at 10 a.m. today Due to inclement weather expected in Montgomery, the match will be played indoors at Auburn University.

After winning the doubles point against Notre Dame, the Red Raiders won five of six first sets in singles play. Tech’s top three players – Raony Carvalho, Gonzalo Escobar and Rafael Garcia – finished first, sweeping their opponents to seal Tech’s victory.

Tech already owns one tournament title this year after capturing the HEB Tournament of Champions crown earlier this month. The team is riding a 13-match winning streak.

• Softball

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Texas Tech won both of its softball games on the second day of the USF The Game Tournament, beating Florida A&M and Towson at Eddie C. Moore Park.

Tech pitcher Ashly Jacobs (10-0) struck out nine in the 7-2 win against Florida A&M, allowing just one earned run and four hits in a complete game. Logan Hall, Mikey Kenney and Raven Richardson each hit home runs for the Red Raiders (28-3), and they combined for seven hits and six RBIs.

Holley Gentsch homered in the 6-2 win against Towson, and she and Jennifer Lee drove in two runs apiece for Tech. Ashley Brokeshoulder pitched a complete game, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out two.

• Track and field

Texas Tech started its outdoor season by winning a combined three events at meets in Fort Worth and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Senior Ozie Okolie won the hammer throw at the Horned Frog Invitational, and her mark of 197 feet, 4 inches ranks second in the NCAA this year. Okolie also finished second in the discus.

Freshman Julian Wruck also had a pair of top-two finishes in Fort Worth, winning the discus and placing second in the hammer throw. Wruck’s mark of 190-5 in the discus was Tech’s best in five years and the third-best in the nation this season, and he beat Big 12 Conference champion Luke Bryant of Oklahoma.

Running for Puerto Rico at the Carolina Spring Break Camp Classic in San Juan, Tech sophomore Jamele Mason won the men’s 400-meter hurdles. His time of 51.32 seconds is the second-fastest in the NCAA this year.

Roddick joins teammates Bryce Lamb (men’s triple jump) and Shade Weygandt (women’s pole vault) as automatic qualifiers to the NCAA meet March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Tech put up 10 provisional marks Saturday. On the men’s side, those included provisionals by Brian Porter (17-3 in the pole vault), Omo Osaghae (7.81 in the 60-meter hurdles), Silas Kemboi (1:50.33 for second place in the 800 meters) and Lamb (25-83/4 in the long jump).

Provisionals from the Tech women were by Caroline Karunde (9 minutes, 18.59 seconds in winning the 3,000 meters) and Purity Biwott (2:08.15 for second in the 800). Running at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas,
Tech’s Lillian Badaru finished second in the 5,000 with a provisional-qualifying time of 16:28.58.

Two Tech 1,600-meter relay teams also had provisional times in College Station: the women’s quartet of Erica Alexander, Taylor Evans, Candace Jackson and Trudeann Clark took third in 3:38.37. The men’s relay of Gil Roberts, Markus Henderson, Zach Plinario and Bryce Brown won in 3:08.04.

-Men’s tennis
The Texas Tech men’s tennis team picked up a pair of victories on Saturday, following a win over McMurry with a 7-0 sweep of Abilene Christian at the McLeod Tennis Center.
Tech breezed through singles competition, losing only seven games, and also swept doubles competition as well.

-Softball splits at tourney in Tempe
TEMPE, Ariz. — Raven Richardson’s three-run home run in the top of the seventh helped the Texas Tech softball team to a 4-3 win over Oregon at the ASU Kajikawa Tournament on Saturday.

The win comes after the Red Raiders (3-1) suffered their first loss of the season, a 6-1 decision to Auburn.

Krista Clyde’s grand slam home run and a solid effort in the circle from Anna Thompson led Auburn the win.

Ashley Brokeshoulder suffered the loss for the Red Raiders, allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits and two walks in 31/3 innings.

Tech’s offense managed just two hits, both singles, one each by Leah Legler and Logan Hall.

Tech was scheduled to play Oregon later Saturday and wind up the tournament with San Diego State today.

The Coronado senior wants to compete with the best, beat the best and, ultimately, be the best.

That’s why Wofford chose to play collegiate tennis at Tennessee, which finished the 2009 spring season as the 10th-ranked women’s team in the nation.

“It’s definitely going to be tougher, but that’s what I wanted,” Wofford said Wednesday, shortly after signing her national letter of intent. “If I can’t be the best, I don’t really want to try. That’s what I’m going for.”

Wofford, who said her long-term goals are to win national championships with the Lady Volunteers and play professionally, has what it takes if her high school career is any indication. She won a Class 5A state championship in girls doubles as a freshman — teaming up with current Texas Tech player Kelsy Garland — and earlier this month helped lead Coronado to the team tennis state tournament for the first time since 2003.

Wofford has lost only two singles matches and one doubles match in three years of high school competition.

“She’s going to be great, absolutely,” said Coronado head coach David Denham, who tabbed Wofford as the most physically gifted player he’s coached. “… She’s a well-rounded player, and she has unbelievable potential to grow even better.”

Denham described Wofford as having a rare combination of power and finesse, saying she’s an “all-court player that can beat you at the net or beat you at the baseline.” The coach said she also can adjust to opponents on the fly and has a perfectionist’s mentality.

“Even as a freshman, she’d wait until practice was over and come back out and run behind the scenes where she didn’t have to be noticed,” Denham said. “She would do a lot of things behind the scenes because she wanted to get better, she wanted to get stronger, she wanted to work on her weaknesses. Honestly, her work ethic is above and beyond most.”

Wofford said it feels good to know her hard work has paid off, and that the recruiting process is finally over. She took a break from high school tennis as a junior, instead competing in United States Tennis Association events so she could increase her national profile and improve her chances of being noticed by collegiate programs.
Consider it a game plan well executed, and a dream come true.

“It really is,” Wofford said. “It’s amazing to look back on it and know that I’ve stressed so much. I worked real hard and had fun, but I did a lot of stressing to get to this point. And this is exactly what I wanted, so I’m just happy.”

Tyler Pearson, Rice baseball
Kent Meador has been Monterey’s baseball coach only since July, and he’s had Tyler Pearson in offseason workouts for less than a week.

But Meador can already see why the senior catcher was an attractive prospect to Rice, where Pearson is headed after signing his national letter of intent on Wednesday.

“I’ve had him three days now, and shoot, he’s got the tools,” Meador said. “He can throw — he’s got a plus arm — and he just has a good concept of what he’s doing. And he swings the bat and has got a lot of power. He’s got the tools, no question about it.”

Pearson, who was a first-team selection on The Avalanche-Journal’s All-South Plains Class 5A-4A team as a junior last year, said he’s thankful for the opportunity and “excited” to play for the Owls and head coach Wayne Graham. Pearson also hopes to make an immediate impact for a program that has seven College World Series appearances and a national championship since 1997.

Pearson is coming off a season in which he batted .371 with 17 extra-base hits and 32 RBIs, and he gunned down 20 potential base-stealers.

“I think I have a chance my freshman year (to play), to tell you the truth,” Pearson said. “I’m going to have to work hard, of course, but I think that there’s a chance.”

Meador said a solid work ethic is already in place, thanks in large part to Pearson’s family. His father, Todd, is Monterey’s head football coach.

“We just tried to keep him grounded, stay humble and work hard, and if you put yourself in the right position, good things will eventually happen to you,” Todd Pearson said. “Whether it’s this or something else, something will come of that.”

Devin Griffin, North Carolina State women’s basketball
Devin Griffin found what she was looking for half a continent away. The versatile Coronado senior signed with North Carolina State, to whom she had made an oral commitment in early October.

She said NC State had all the ingredients.

“The atmosphere, the gym, the players,’’ Griffin said. “Just when I got there, that welcoming feeling. You could tell they were very loving and like a family, like I have here at Coronado.’’

Griffin didn’t want to disrupt her Lady Mustangs family, so she brought the college decision to a close before her senior season.

“I didn’t want to have to worry about it through the season and take away from my teammates and our big goal,’’ said Griffin, whose Coronado teammates encircled her as she signed her letter of intent Wednesday afternoon.

The 5-foot-9 Griffin averaged 19.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game last season, helping Coronado to a District 2-5A championship and the regional quarterfinals. She said she’s not sure what position NC State will have her play, but Coronado coach Shirlene Hughes said it doesn’t matter.

“She can play point guard, she can post up, and she can shoot the ball from the wing as well as create offensively,’’ Hughes said. “She’s fast. She reads well. She can see past the defense and anticipate. For us, hopefully she’ll kind of carry us through the season. For her as a player, she’s going to get better and be a plus for the ACC, I believe.’’

Griffin’s mother, Tami Wilson, and her older sisters, Darrice and Teddy Griffin, all played for Texas Tech. Devin Griffin said she was offered a scholarship by the Lady Raiders this summer, but Tech coaches needed to know quickly whether she’d accept.

“They were excited about me, so they wanted me to commit right then and there,’’ Griffin said. “But I knew I needed a little bit more time to get my mind together and figure out the rest of the recruiting process. I didn’t want to jump into anything too quickly.’’

She was won over by new NC State coach Kellie Harper who, as Kellie Jolly, was a standout guard on Tennessee teams that won three national championships from 1996-98.

“She’s gotten national championships, so she knows what it takes,’’ Griffin said. “I can’t wait to go and get all that knowledge from her.’’

(Assistant sports editor George Watson and staff writer Don Williams contributed to this report.)

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Texas Tech tennis player Raony Carvalho qualified for the men's indoor tennis nationals at Yale University in West Haven, Conn. Carvalho is the No. 25-ranked college player in the country. (John A. Bowersmith)

“Please, nobody talk to me,” he’d think. “I don’t know how to answer.”

Carvalho arrived from Brazil a little more than one year ago, speaking no English and having little idea what to expect at an American university. He’d enrolled at Texas Tech to play tennis, but with no knowledge of NCAA competition couldn’t predict much about the college game, either.

In a little more than 12 months, the sophomore has reined in his emotional court presence enough to embrace his roll as Tech tennis’ No. 1 singles player. He climbed the college rankings throughout the fall and this weekend competes at the indoor national championship at Yale University.

“It’s a tough tournament, but if I am there, that means I am tough, too,” Carvalho said. “This is the only one where you can say the No. 1 player is not the favorite to win. I could go there and play against the No. 1, play against the No. 5, and still beat them.”

Which is just what Carvalho will attempt this afternoon. Although he is ranked No. 25 nationally, Carvalho was the wildcard selection because he is neither a top-12 player or a district champion. He drew a first round match with No. 1 ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State.

Texas Tech tennis player Raony Carvalho qualified for the men's indoor tennis nationals at Yale University in West Haven, Conn. Carvalho is the No. 25-ranked college player in the country. (John A. Bowersmith)

Carvalho said he would have had no hope of winning had they faced off a year ago.

The 22-year-old had been playing tennis for more than a decade when he decided to try life as a full-time athlete. He’d been the top-ranked player in his age group throughout his teens. He ranked in the top 10 internationally in the 16-and-under and 18-and-under divisions.

When Tech assistant coach Marcelo Ferreira, another Brazilian, offered him a scholarship, Carvalho said no. But he soon he became bored with the South American cicuit, and saw moving to the U.S. as a challenge.

“I really thought I could improve a lot here,” Carvalho said. “I really believed I could improve here more than in Brazil.”

Learning English became his first struggle. He said the language barrier left him lonely; he missed his home, his friends, and speaking comfortably in his native Portuguese. Even his student apartment felt foreign.

The frustration snuck through on the court. Coach Tim Siegel says the freshman Carvalho was impatient, always swatting the ball as hard as possible in an effort to win the point.

It often worked; he played No. 1 singles and doubles as a freshman, was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year and was the ITA South Central Rookie of the Year.

“I like to hit the ball really hard,” Carvalho said. “Sometimes you have to work the point, hit five, 10, 15 balls. I always thought I had to win the point on the first shot. If the ball comes I have to hit it as hard as I can, and if I don’t hit a winner it doesn’t count. Now I know I have to make a beautiful point so I feel good with myself.”

Slowly, though, both his English and his tennis improved.

He began dating women’s tennis player Stefanie Peana, who helped him become more comfortable with the language.

“I speak better English when I’m with her,” he said, “and it sounds to me like she is speaking Portuguese.”

On the court he teammed up with Christian Rojmar at No. 1 doubles. The pair went 6-4 in the fall an 4-1 against nationally ranked teams. They advanced to last year’s national indoor championships in doubles, where they played against, and defeated, Oklahoma State’s Nathan Byrnes and Nedovyesov, Carvalho’s singles opponent this afternoon.

Carvalho says he once would have psyched himself out against a higher-ranked opponent. If he lost the first set, he would lose faith that he might rally to win the second.

At last month’s ITA All-American he upset No. 13 Just Kronauge from Ohio State 7-6 (4), 6-7 (9), 6-3. Carvalho was winning 5-4 and fought through seven match points before losing the second set, but came back in the third for the biggest win of his Tech career.

“He now is much more mature, much more focused, more disciplined,” Siegel said. “He has the ability in a lot of areas to be able to handle the No. 1 position better than he did last year.”

Today Carvalho becomes just the second Red Raider to qualify for the singles draw at the ITA Indoor Nationals. It’s a field of the top 32 tennis players in the college game, and Carvalho was the last man in even after finishing 7-2 in just two tournaments and upsetting the No. 13 and No. 20 players in the country.
He said he refuses to consider himself an underdog.

“I have big expectations,” he said. “I’m really prepared; I’m feeling mentally stronger, physically stronger. I’m ready to go there and beat a lot of guys.”

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Carvalho, the nation’s 25th-ranked singles player, beat No. 20 Conkic 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Today he’ll face 13th-ranked Justin Kronauge of Ohio State in the round of 32.

Natalie Leitch won her four singles matches in Flight A. Kerryn Potgieter and Stefanie Peana each won their four singles matches and Lorena Aviles won her three in Flight B.

The Red Raiders won 24 of their 30 singles matches at the Lobo Invitational.

Starting off the day was the A doubles draw where Escobar and Stabile defeated Julian Bley and Attila Bucko (Baylor), 8-5, in the round of 32. The duo then finished the day by beating Michael Nusslein and Christian Saravia (Rice), 9-8 (3). Losing their first-round doubles match was sophomore Rafael Garcia and freshman Raphael Pfister to Ben Chen and Daniel Whitehead (Texas), 8-4.

All four Tech players played in the A singles draw with Escobar as the lone Red Raider advancing on in the main draw.

The Texas Tech tennis team has had quite an interesting season, to say the least.

The third-seeded Red Raiders (13-11) have found a way to overcome adversity on the court this year and advance to their third consecutive NCAA Championship appearance — fourth in the last five years — where they will face second-seeded Washington in the first round at 10 a.m. today at Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin.

Texas Tech's Sinisa Markovic practices Tuesday afternoon at McLeod. Markovic currently holds the all-time highest winning percentage at Texas Tech.May 05, 2009 (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Host Texas has the top seed in the four-team region and will face No. 4 Sacred Heart following Tech’s match with the Huskies.

For Tech, it means getting to play in a familiar spot where it nearly beat the Longhorns earlier this season — one of seven matches the Red Raiders lost by one point this season.

“It was a lot of ups and downs for us this season,” said senior Michael Breler, who will play in the No. 5 spot in singles and second doubles team with senior Sinisa Markovic. “But that’s pretty much history now. We’re going into this postseason with a new mindset in what we learned from those close matches.”

And the Tech seniors will bring plenty of NCAA experience into Austin in trying to move into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.

The four seniors — Breler, Markovic, Christian Rojmar and Milos Kustudija — will join freshmen Gonzalo Escobar and Raony Carvalho in the six-man lineup for today’s matches.

“In this group of five seniors, and four of these guys are in the lineup, has been a part of one of the most successful runs we’ve had with the last three years,” said Tech coach Tim Siegel, who will make his eighth appearance at the NCAA tournament in 16 seasons at Tech. “… This is the third year in a row these guys have made the NCAA tournament.”

Carvalho, who was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year on Wednesday, has had one of the most successful seasons for the Red Raiders. He was 11-9 this season playing in the No. 1 spot in singles and 13-8 in the doubles top spot with Rojmar.

But Siegel said he wanted to put Markovic, a senior from Banja Luka, Bosnia, in the No. 1 spot today and Carvalho in the second slot.

Markovic has the highest winning percentage in Tech tennis history (.768).

“He’s probably been one of the most successful and important players on this squad for the last two season,” Siegel said. “He’s just had a great career.”

That could lead to a great matchup with Washington’s Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, a sophomore who is ranked 43rd and has a 16-3 record in singles this season for the Huskies — making their 15th consecutive appearance at the NCAAs.

Tech has not faced Washington since the 2007 season, a 4-1 Huskies win at the Great Northwest Shootout.

Breler, who played against the Huskies in 2007, said he likes the draw and the conditions the two will be playing in.

“I think they’re mostly an indoor team,” he said. “So getting to be in Texas and in the outdoors in an environment we’re used to every day, I think, is going to benefit us a lot.”

Todd Petty’s dream was to coach tennis at the Division I level. He received a taste of that during the 2008-09 season, but now he can whet his appetite.

Petty had the interim tag removed from his title on Thursday as Texas Tech officially named him the head coach of the women’s program.

Petty guided the Lady Raiders to a 10-14 record after replacing Cari Groce prior to this season. Groce compiled a 59-53 record in five seasons at Tech. Her best season was 2006, when the Lady Raiders finished 14-8, 7-4 in the Big 12 Conference- the only time the Tech women finished above .500 in conference play under Groce.

Tech finished 10-14, 4-7 in Big 12 play under Petty, tying Missouri and Kansas for seventh place.

The Lady Raiders, seeded seventh in the Big 12 Women’s Championships, knocked off Oklahoma in the first round before losing to third-seeded Texas.

“Todd did a good job with our women’s tennis team this year as interim coach,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said in a statement released by the university. “He proved he is a good manager, and I am excited about the future of our program under Todd’s direction. He will do a really good job for the Texas Tech women’s tennis program.”

Petty was an assistant to Groce for the 2007-08 season. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Wichita Falls Rider, where he helped guide one player in 2006 to the Class 4A state singles championship. Petty’s Rider teams finished in the top five in the state rankings from 2004-06.

“This program has a lot of potential with the resources and facilities that it has,” Petty said. “I think it’s ready to pop. Hopefully, with a little push, we’ll get there, get to the point where we’re a top-25, top-30 team year in and year out and competing for a Big 12 championship.”

When Tech starts the fall season, Petty will have to replace his Nos. 1 and 6 singles players, Samantha van der Drift and Kyla Coleman, who have exhausted their eligibility.

Leading the returning class will be former Coronado standout Kelsy Garland.

“We’ve got a great group coming back,” Petty said. “We lose our bookends, but the rest were either freshmen or sophomores this year. Starting with the local product, Kelsy, we’ll probably expect her to be the captain and lead this team. We’ve also got a good recruiting class coming in, so on paper, we could be dangerous. I think we’re taking a step in the right direction.”

Part of Petty’s first recruiting class is Maria Aviles of Ecuador, who became his second signee on Thursday.

Aviles was a member of Ecuador’s Junior Fed Cup team in 2008.

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The 32nd-ranked Texas Tech men’s tennis team blanked Lamar, 7-0, at the McLeod Tennis Center in its final non-conference match of the season.

The Red Raiders (11-7) have won four of their last five matches, and did so Saturday by capturing every point despite the cold, windy weather. Tech took control by easily winning the doubles point. Raony Carvalho and Christian Rojmar won 8-1, and David Gonzalez and Gonzalo Escobar won 8-4.

Tech then swept the singles. The Red Raiders won all six matches in two sets, and Rojmar was the only one to have any real trouble, taking his second set 7-5 after winning 6-0 in the first set.

The Red Raiders will open Big 12 Conference action on Friday at No. 14 Texas A&M. Tech’s next home match is April 14 against No. 10 Baylor.

• Tech women’s tennis

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Lady Raiders women’s tennis team celebrated the berth of head coach Todd Petty’s son on Friday with a 4-3 victory over Missouri Saturday in Big 12 Conference action.

The win improves Tech to 7-9 on the year and 2-3 in conference play. Petty did not make the trip to be with his wife for the berth of son Colt Rusk on Friday.

Tech started the day with a sweep in doubles to earn the first point. Wins were picked up by the duos of Samantha van der Drift and Kelsey Garland, Stefanie Peana and Kerryn Potgieter and Natalie Leitch and Simone Templeton.

That would prove big as the teams split in singles. van der Drift at No. 1, Leitch at No. 4 and Peana at No. 5 all earned victories, with Peana’s win giving Tech the overall victory.

Tech will be back in action against Colorado at noon Sunday in Boulder.

• Tech track and field

HOUSTON – Gilbert Limo ran an NCAA regional qualifying mark with a win in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and the Tech track team nabbed five top-five finishes at the Victor Lopez Bayou Classic.

Limo won the event with a time of 9 minutes, 0.64 seconds. Nathan Milles finished sixth in the event in 9:39.78 while Kaci Westervelt took eighth in the women’s steeplechase in 11:45.02.

Asia Diaz finished second in the women’s 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:32.09 while Cory Higgins took second in the men’s 5,000-meter in 14:58.61.

Freshman Zach Dawson from Big Spring grabbed fourth in the men’s 1,500 in 3:56; Gladys Kipsang took fifth in the women’s 1,500 in 4:37.42 and Michelle Guzman took fifth in the women’s 5,000 in 17:00.20. Silas Kemboi was ninth in the 1,500 in 4:02.29.

• Tech women’s golf

TUCSON, Ariz. – Texas Tech sophomore Jackie Smith carded a season-best 70 on Saturday, and the 2-under-par score moved her into a tie for 15th place after the second round of the Mountain View Collegiate.

Tech is in 15th place with a 36-hole total of 610 going into today’s final round. San Jose State leads the fielld at 571.

Tech individual scores are: Smith 76-70-146; Megan Dowdy 81-74-155; Ulrika van Niekerk 78-78-156; Robyn Scott 79-77-156; and Rosalyn Kim 78-79-157.

• Wayland Baptist baseball

PLAINVIEW – No. 19 Wayland Baptist slugged six home runs – two apiece by Franky Busani and Todd Jeffress – and held on to beat the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma 17-14, then later settled for a doubleheader split.

Nate Hammons threw a two-hit shutout in the second game as USAO won 5-0. Singles by Brett Cook and Jeffress were the only hits for the Pioneers.

Wayland had plenty of offense in the opener. Busani drove in five runs, and the Pioneers got three RBIs apiece from Eddie Allen, Brett Sheppard and Jeffress. Cook, the Pioneers’ leadoff-batting second baseman, had two hits, two walks and scored four times.

Wayland broke an 11-11 tie with three runs in the fifth.

First Game

WAYLAND BAPTIST 17, USAO 14

USAO 102 530 3 – 14 13 0

Wayland 304 433 x – 17 13 2

Martin, Sopic (5), Taylor (6) and Krobath; Limon, Swett (4), Kimzey (5), Stringer (7) and Sheppard. W-Kimzey (3-0). L-Sopic (2-1). 2B-USAO, Carby, Lierly, Ylda; Wayland, Cook, Curtis, Allen 2. HR-USAO, Carby (2); Wayland, Sheppard (2), Busani 2 (8), Jeffress 2 (12), Lucas (8).

Second Game

USAO 5, WAYLAND BAPTIST 0

USAO 120 011 0 – 5 6 1

Wayland 000 000 0 – 0 2 0

Hammons and Krobath; Weldon and Rivera. W-Hammons. L-Weldon. 2B-USAO, Carby, Sylvester, Krobath. HR-USAO, Wood. Records: USAO 25-6, 9-5; Wayland Baptist 25-9, 10-7.