Following a 3-2 start down in Tempe, Northwestern loads up the plane again for another road trip to Clearwater, FL., for the Shriners Children’s Invitational.
Awaiting them upon its arrival to the Panhandle will be top-ranked Texas Tech, who enter 2026 off the backs of a Women’s College World Series runner-up finish. The Red Raiders have redemption at the top of their minds: in their quest to get back to the WCWS, they’ve started the season 6-0, ending five of their six contests via the run rule in the fifth
inning.
NU’s hands are full this coming Thursday in its first ranked matchup of the season. Let’s look at what’s to come tomorrow night.
Scouting the Red Raiders: top-down dominance
It’s hard to talk about Texas Tech without the name NiJaree Canady being mentioned — reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and D1Softball’s consensus No. 1 player in the country last season. A power-pitching right hander, Canady overpowers the nation’s best in the circle. In her three appearances thus far, she’s pitched to a 1.91 ERA in 11 innings, striking out eight.
Luckily for Northwestern, Texas Tech has to deal with No. 6 Florida State a couple hours before it meets the ’Cats on Thursday night, meaning that Canady will likely be unavailable for game two after pitching game one of the Clearwater Invitational. The Red Raiders will most likely hand the ball to Kaitlyn Terry or Samantha Lincoln.
Terry, the 2024 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is an arm the ‘Cats are familiar with. In NU’s conference series against UCLA, the Glendale native surrendered seven earned runs on nine hits, including a career-high four home runs allowed. With a very familiar looking squad, it’s advantage Northwestern if she takes the bump.
Lincoln is building off a solid freshman year which saw her go 8-3 with a 3.50 ERA in 72 innings of work. So far in 2026, she’s got two quality starts against North Texas and Bryant, pitching five innings of two-hit ball in the latter appearance. NU is a jump in competition for the young sophomore, but a good test that she seems prepared for nontheless.
Offensively, Florida transfer Mia Williams is tearing the cover off the ball, hitting .688 and slugging 1.625 with nine extra base hits and 13 RBIs, all team-highs. Mihyia Davis and Lagi Quiroga join her as two of three Texas Tech position players to hit .500 or better in its first six games. The team’s .451 average ranks them first in the Big 12 by a sizable amount, as Iowa State follows up in the category hitting over 40 points worse.
Northwestern’s saving grace: beating experience with youth
In NU’s first five games, its young core of Kaylie Avvisato, Tru Medina and Marina Mason shined.
Avvisato is the battery of the lineup in the three hole: an RBI machine who hits for power and average, with her speed on the base paths being the cherry on top of one of the most dynamic toolboxes in the nation. That toolbox was on full display in Tempe, hitting .429 in 14 at bats, finishing with three extra base hits, seven RBIs and two stolen bases.
Medina, a name that the Drohans’ were extremely high on coming into this year, seems to be primed and ready for the challenge of the collegiate jump. She showed a flair for the dramatic with a clutch home run against Texas State last Friday — her first collegiate hit, no less — to tie the game in its dying moments. Her role in the nine spot is so crucial to giving leadoff hitter Grace Nieto extra at-bats, and she’s taken to it nicely through the first week of play.
Mason could be considered Northwestern’s best arm in the circle at the Kajikawa Classic, pitching five innings of one-run ball against Texas State and then surrendering just one run to a strong Arizona State squad. In a Lauren Boyd-less world of Northwestern softball, the No. 1 spot in the rotation seems up for grabs, and Mason could be in the mix alongside Riley Grudzielanek and Signe Dohse after her performance last weekend. Who Kate Drohan gives the ball to this game will say a lot about who she believes her No. 1 starter will be in conference play, and Mason is a prime candidate to appear in the circle in a such a high-caliber game.
Northwestern’s first-years put on a show in Tempe, and names like Avvisato, Avery Garden and Emma Raye continue to be staples of the lineup. For the ‘Cats to pull the upset, all of these players will need to play a factor in swaying the momentum NU’s way.
The battle of two programs trailblazing the sport
Wrestling legend Ric Flair once said “to be the man, you gotta beat the man.”
Although professional wrestling may be fake, Flair’s words are as real as they can possibly get.
In almost every sport, this manifests itself: Stephen Curry had to defeat LeBron James in the NBA Finals twice to be considered the best in the league. The Legion of Boom had to beat the best Broncos offense of all time to go down as one of the greatest defensive units ever assembled. Even Derek Jeter, one of the best shortstops to ever touch a baseball, had to win a World Series in his rookie season to cement his status as the best in his draft class.
For Northwestern, the path to claiming that top spot its been chasing for years runs right through Texas Tech — a program that can be considered the framework for who NU seeks to become.
When school trustee Harreld “Kip” Kirkpatrick and his wife Sara donated five million dollars to renovate Sharon J. Drysdale Field, the vision was for the ‘Cats to obtain the elite resources they need to compete with programs like Oklahoma, who defeated them in the Super Regionals on their way to the 2023 WCWS title, and Texas, who toppled their in-state rival last season for the 2025 championship.
However, in a world where the Sooners and the Longhorns have historically dominated, Canady’s announcement to transfer from Stanford to a program who’d never made the Super Regional, let alone a College World Series, shook the landscape of the sport.
Canady’s arrival to Lubbock instantaneously drew eyeballs to Texas Tech softball, as the athletic department poured nearly $4 million into the program in the 2023-24 academic year. After Canady pitched to a sub-1.00 ERA on a torn hamstring, the payoff for the softball program was ever larger in 2025, with its ace inking a record-breaking $1 million NIL contract.
NIL in softball has brought attention to the sport never seen before, and Northwestern is positioning itself to move towards the epicenter of that attention. A big investment into renovating The J for 2027 is a “I believe in you” from Kirkpatrick to Avvisato, Medina, Mason and Renschen.
A belief that they too can reach the heights of a Canady, a Jordy Bahl or a Bri Ellis.
But to get there, the first thing on the checklist is to prove it by beating the Red Raiders.
Crossing Texas Tech off the list is a great place for Northwestern softball to start climbing to those heights.
