Sports

Texas Tech heading to Women's College World Series

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Texas Tech’s historic season added another chapter Friday afternoon as the Red Raiders secured their first trip to the Women’s College World Series following a 2-1 victory over Florida State at JoAnne Graf Field. The Red Raiders (50-12) utilized the same formula in both Super Regional wins over the Seminoles (49-12) – […]

Published

2 months ago

May 24, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Texas Tech heading to Women's College World Series

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Texas Tech’s historic season added another chapter Friday afternoon as the Red Raiders secured their first trip to the Women’s College World Series following a 2-1 victory over Florida State at JoAnne Graf Field.

The Red Raiders (50-12) utilized the same formula in both Super Regional wins over the Seminoles (49-12) – an early first-inning lead and dominant pitching in the circle from NiJaree Canady. The result has the Red Raiders heading to Oklahoma City for the first time in program history where Texas Tech will face either Ole Miss or Arkansas next Thursday.

Canady further solidified her reputation as the nation’s top pitcher as she withstood a seventh-inning rally to return to Oklahoma City for a third time in her college career. Florida State led off the seventh with a leadoff walk to Katie Dack and then a double from Michaela Edenfield with Dack scoring immediately after on an RBI ground out from Shelby McKenzie. Canady fought out of the jam, leaving the tying run at third base after back-to-back foul outs to Lauren Allred at first base to end the threat.

Outside the double to Edenfield in the seventh, Canady only allowed an infield single to McKenzie in the second and then a double to Hallie Wacaser in the fifth for her second complete game gem in as many days. The victory was the 30th of the season for Canady (30-5), who combined to surrender only one run off five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over her 14.0 combined innings in the two-game sweep of the Seminoles.

Canady (30-5) benefited from an early lead once again with Mihyia Davis coming around to score in the first inning for the second-consecutive game. Davis, who slapped an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error to start the inning, raced home to beat the tag on an Alana Johnson sacrifice fly to shallow left field for an early 1-0 lead.

It marked the fifth time in as many games the Red Raiders have scored in the opening inning as Texas Tech is now 31-1 when doing so this season and a perfect 5-0 since opening the NCAA Lubbock Regional with a 6-0 victory over Brown. Texas Tech will enter the Women’s College World Series riding an eight-game winning streak where the Red Raiders have combined to outscore opponents, 56-8, during that stretch.

The Red Raiders added what became the game-winning run in the fifth as Demi Elder shot a single up the middle to score Johnson from second. Johnson collided with the Seminole shortstop on the play, recovering in time to beat a delayed throw home to give the Red Raiders a 2-0 lead. Elder finished 2-for-3 at the plate for a Texas Tech offense that combined for six hits off the Florida State pitching staff.

Julia Apsel (12-2) took the loss in the circle for Florida State as the left-hander allowed one unearned run off three hits and a strikeout over her 2.2 innings. She was relieved midway through the third by Jazzy Francik, who similarly gave up an unearned run off three hits and three strikeouts over the final 3.1 innings. Florida State combined for four errors as a team.

The Red Raiders will face the winner of the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional between No. 4 seed Arkansas and unseeded Ole Miss in their Women’s College World Series debut next Thursday. Game times and television designations will be announced later this weekend by the NCAA.

Sports

Newport Beach to Host World Volleyball Action – SportsTravel

Volleyball World, FIVB, USA Volleyball and Eagle Four Partners have announced an Elite Beach Pro Tour tournament will be held October 7–11 in Newport Beach, California, the first time the series has been in the United States since 2018. “Hosting our first Elite Beach Pro Tour event on U.S. soil is a monumental milestone for […]

Published

3 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation

“Hosting our first Elite Beach Pro Tour event on U.S. soil is a monumental milestone for American beach volleyball,” said John Speraw, president and chief executive officer at USA Volleyball. “Newport Beach is an iconic venue with deep roots in the sport’s culture and we’re thrilled to welcome the world’s best athletes to compete here. This event not only highlights the strength of our beach volleyball community and reflects the sport’s incredible momentum heading into a new era of growth and global connection, including the LA28 Summer Games.”

The tournament is the only U.S. event on the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour schedule. The event will also include the Newport Beach Volleyball Invitational, a four-man showcase that combines AVP stars and hall of fame legends. Across both events combined, more than $500,000 in prize money will be up for grabs.

“The U.S. has long been a key destination for beach volleyball, both as a competitive stage and as a home to a passionate fan base,” said Stephanie Giardina, U.S. head at Volleyball World. “Hosting the Elite Beach Pro Tour in Newport Beach reflects just how strong this market is. We’re excited to create an experience that celebrates that legacy while inspiring the next generation of American beach volleyball fans.”

The return to California reflects a shared commitment by Volleyball World and USA Volleyball to elevate the sport. Fans will experience a festival with music, food and entertainment. General admission will be free, with premium hospitality and VIP experiences available for purchase.

“Returning the Elite Beach Pro Tour to the U.S. is a key step in our mission to globalise the sport,” said Guido Betti, chief business officer at Volleyball World. “By bringing world-class competition to iconic destinations like Newport Beach and activating through strong local partnerships, we’re building a stronger, more connected global community of fans.”

Link

Sports

Princeton University

The Opening Ceremonies and first events of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games will begin three years from this week in Los Angeles. Did you hear the big news about Los Angeles ’28? No, it’s not that the track and field competition will be held the first week of the Games and the swimming competition will […]

Published

21 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The Opening Ceremonies and first events of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games will begin three years from this week in Los Angeles.

Did you hear the big news about Los Angeles ’28? No, it’s not that the track and field competition will be held the first week of the Games and the swimming competition will be held the second.

The swimming events, by the way, will be held in a pool that will be constructed in SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. This is similar to the 2024 Olympic Trials, which were held inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The biggest story is, of course, the return of lacrosse to the Games as a medal sport. This will be the first time ever for women and the first time for men since 1908.

It won’t be the full-field lacrosse that you see in college. This will be the Sixes version, which is pretty much what it sounds like — smaller sides, smaller field, faster pace, higher scoring.

The final will be July 29, 2028. It will match the United States and Canada (there are few predictions of which TigerBlog is more certain).

Will there be Princeton representation? TB isn’t as sure about that as he is about the teams who will be in the final, but he’ll go with “yes” on that one.

Squash will also be a medal sport in 2028. Princeton alum Olivia Fiechter Weaver (who is married to former Tiger men’s lacrosse player Bobby Weaver) is currently the No. 4 ranked player in the world.

If you have a great memory, you might remember back to Oct. 19, 2012. What were you doing that day? If you were reading TigerBlog, you saw a guest entry from Julie Cerullo, then a senior on the Princeton women’s squash team.

What did she write about? You guessed — that squash should be an Olympic sport. You can read it HERE. This is part of her story:

On paper, squash meets all the criteria required of an Olympic sport in terms of its history, universality and popularity. It’s good for athletes’ health and would be relatively cheap to integrate. But squash will be competing against five other sports for one open berth in the 2020 games. The other aspirant sports are Karate, wushu (a martial art), roller sports, sport climbing and wake boarding, and it won’t get any easier beyond 2020 as lacrosse and mixed martial arts have announced their plans to seek Olympic status in the future. A possible bid by softball and baseball for reinstatement in 2020 further complicates the decision.

Princeton figures to be well-represented in Los Angeles, as it seems to be in every Summer Olympic Games. If you recall a year ago from Paris, Princeton athletes won three gold medals (Hannah Scott in rowing, Maia Weintraub in fencing, Nice Mead in rowing) and had 16 competitors in all.

The World University Games aren’t quite the Olympics, but they do provide some pretty diverse competition. They have been contested every other year since 1959 (the winter version began in 1960 and continues to the present), or pretty much every other year since 1959. For some reason, they were held in 1967, 1970 and then 1973 but have been back on the every-other-year schedule since, though the 2023 edition was cancelled after the host country, Russia, invaded Ukraine.

The Games were held in Moscow in the Soviet Union in 1973. Princeton women’s athletic pioneer Cathy Corcione won a gold and a silver there.

The 2029 version will be held in North Carolina, after a stop in South Korea in 2027. The only time to date that the United States has been the host nation for the summer Games was in 1993, when they were held in Buffalo.

The current World University Games began yesterday in are 12 Tigers from five countries and four sports who are currently competing in the current edition, which began yesterday in the Rhine-Ruhr Region of Germany.

You can see the schedule for the Tigers HERE.

The first Princetonians to kick things off will probably have already done so by the time you read this. They would be Chloe Fox-Gitomer in women’s team saber fencing and Jackson Hicke in men’s 3×3 basketball.

Hicke is part of an all-Ivy League team, as Hicke will be joined by Avery Brown (Columbia), Chandler Piggé (Harvard) and Nick Townsend (Yale).

Link

Sports

Seacrest beat Foundation Academy to win 2013 FHSAA volleyball title

Jake Perper | Naples Daily News Seacrest seized the moment on Saturday. The Stingrays became the first volleyball team in Collier County to win a state championship. Seacrest defeated Winter Garden-Foundation Academy in a thrilling five-set match, 18-25, 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 15-12, in the Class 2A state final at Silver Spurs Arena. “I’m very happy […]

Published

22 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Jake Perper
| Naples Daily News

Seacrest seized the moment on Saturday.

The Stingrays became the first volleyball team in Collier County to win a state championship.

Seacrest defeated Winter Garden-Foundation Academy in a thrilling five-set match, 18-25, 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 15-12, in the Class 2A state final at Silver Spurs Arena.

“I’m very happy for the success of our team,” said Seacrest coach Jan Class, who’s been the head coach since Nov. 8 when Jolana Fowler was suspended by the school for not following ‘basic coaching protocols.’

“We worked very hard the last four months to reach this goal. I’m very proud of each of these girls.”

“We all just focused and buckled down,” Seacrest’s Valerie Gonzalez said. “At the end of the day we wanted it more. We fought hard. We never thought ‘We’re going to lose it’ and we just kept our heads up.”

Seniors Ashley Murano and Riley Gorman couldn’t stop smiling as they celebrated the historic victory.

“I couldn’t have wanted it any other way,” Murano said.

The intensity increased to an entire new level in the fifth and final set.

Trailing 10-7, the Stingrays (26-5) scored three straight points with Emily Hancock serving. Seacrest posted five of the seven final points to win it.

For the second straight year, the Lions’ season ended with a loss in the state title match.

“That was one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of,” Foundation coach Daniel Eleutiza. “It’s hard when you lose, but my girls played hard the entire time. They never quit. My girls played a masterpiece, but the problem is they did too.”

After the Lions took that three-point lead, a visibly upset Hancock slammed the gym floor, but she quickly bounced back.

“I get mad at myself for making errors, obviously,” Hancock said. “Before the last point of the game I was crying, and we hadn’t even won yet. It was so emotional. It all just came out of me.”

Freshman Marissa Murray made a key block to put the Stingrays up 14-10, and then sophomore Madison Cilk delivered a kill to win the championship.

Gonzalez finished with a match-high 27 kills, including two big kills in the final five points of the fifth set. Hancock was right there when Gonzalez wasn’t, adding 21 kills.

Murano had a match-high 40 assists and three kills. Gorman was active all afternoon with a match-high 21 digs.

“It’s a great way to end our senior year and our high school volleyball season,” Gorman said. “We got to be a part of history, which was great.”

Seacrest trailed 19-12 in the third set, but with Gonzalez serving, the Stingrays scored seven straight points to tie it up.

Link

Sports

GB pair part of third place team at nationals

Bella Satterwhite and Estelle Reese, two big reasons while the Lady Dolphin beach volleyball team are the two-time state and national champions, helped Madsand White to a third place finish at the 2025 Beach Volleyball Clubs of America’s National Championships last week in Hermosa Beach, California. Madsand, based out of Plano, Texas, put two teams […]

Published

26 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Link

Sports

Iowa Athletics, Learfield Ink Multi-year Renewal to Continue Nearly 40-year Relationship – Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics

Published

40 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation

With the renewed partnership, Iowa will add two NIL-dedicated personnel and an additional content specialist to the Hawkeye Sports Properties staff and lean into Learfield Impact to deliver more opportunities and enhanced storytelling for its student-athletes and brand partners through a robust suite of NIL services. Learfield Impact brings together expert personnel, digital storytelling, and innovative technology by pairing dedicated NIL leaders, on-campus content and social development resources through the Emmy Award-winning Learfield Studios team. It also leverages the Compass NIL platform, which connects athletes with more than 12,000 brand partners nationwide for streamlined dealmaking.

“Beth and her team have done a fantastic job growing Iowa Athletics, particularly as a leader in collegiate women’s sports, and we’re thrilled to continue what has been nearly 40 years of partnership with the Hawkeyes,” said Kim Damron, Learfield’s President of Sports Properties. “In the post-House Settlement age of college athletics, Learfield is positioned to help Iowa maximize their brand power and revenue generation and look forward to being part of their continued growth.”

Under the renewed partnership, Learfield and Hawkeye Sports Properties will maximize sponsorship revenue through premium assets including on-field logos inside Kinnick Stadium. Iowa Athletics will also continue to leverage Learfield’s corporate partnerships team to add incremental revenue through national brand partners such as State Farm, Old Dominion and Abbott.

The Hawkeyes also take advantage of Learfield’s enterprise-wide expertise through its partnerships with Paciolan, the leader in ticketing, marketing, and fundraising technology in college athletics, and Learfield Amplify, Learfield’s outbound ticket sales, development and in-venue seating solutions provider. Over the last three years, Iowa Athletics has experienced 111 percent growth in ticket transfers, 39 percent growth in new accounts created via ticket transfer, 52 percent growth in tickets sold secondarily through Paciolan’s partnership with SeatGeek, and 101 percent growth in mobile tickets downloaded. Meanwhile, Learfield Amplify’s outbound sales team has ignited multiple successive season ticket sellouts for Hawkeye football, women’s basketball and men’s wrestling, all coming to fruition before the first home event of each respective season.

About Iowa Athletics
The Iowa Athletics Department sponsors 22 NCAA teams. Historically, Hawkeye teams compete at a high level of success, having won 29 team national championships and 138 Big Ten titles. Individually, Iowa student-athletes have performed at the highest level, capturing NCAA and Big Ten championships. Over the years, several Hawkeyes have garnered national player of the year honors, including the Heisman, Naismith and Hodge trophies. Hawkeye student-athletes also excel off the field, reaching their academic goals and earning a college degree, while being active and engaging with those in the community. Countless Iowa student-athletes have gone on to successful careers outside of athletics following graduation.

About Learfield
Learfield is the leading media and technology company powering college athletics. Through its digital and physical platforms, Learfield owns and leverages a deep data set and relationships in the industry to drive revenue, growth, brand awareness, and fan engagement for brands, sports, and entertainment properties. With ties to over 1,200 collegiate institutions and over 12,000 local and national brand partners, Learfield’s presence in college sports and live events delivers influence and maximizes reach to target audiences. With solutions for a 365-day, 24/7 fan experience, Learfield enables schools and brands to connect with fans through licensed merchandise, game ticketing, donor identification for athletic programs, exclusive custom content, innovative marketing initiatives, NIL solutions, and advanced digital platforms. Since 2008, it has served as title sponsor for the acclaimed Learfield Directors’ Cup, supporting athletic departments across all divisions.

Link

Sports

PHOTO GALLERY: North Central Washington Volleyball Club Summer Camp | Sports

State AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington D.C.West VirginiaWisconsinWyomingPuerto RicoUS Virgin IslandsArmed Forces AmericasArmed Forces PacificArmed Forces EuropeNorthern Mariana IslandsMarshall IslandsAmerican SamoaFederated States of MicronesiaGuamPalauAlberta, CanadaBritish Columbia, CanadaManitoba, CanadaNew Brunswick, CanadaNewfoundland, CanadaNova Scotia, CanadaNorthwest Territories, CanadaNunavut, CanadaOntario, CanadaPrince Edward Island, CanadaQuebec, CanadaSaskatchewan, CanadaYukon Territory, Canada Zip Code Country United States of […]

Published

41 minutes ago

July 17, 2025

Your Sports Nation