The Texas Tech soccer team will play their final regular season game Thursday at 7 p.m. against the No. 8 TCU Horned Frogs at the John Walker Soccer Complex.
TCU will clinch the Big 12 regular season title with a win, but the Red Raiders have an opportunity to play spoiler and improve their seeding in the upcoming Big 12 tournament.
Admission to the game is free, and radio coverage will be on The Raider 88.1 FM or The Raider 88.1 on the TuneIn app.
Red Raiders Focused on Winning for Themselves
The NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Ratings Performance Index (RPI) ranks TCU at seventh in the country.
Texas Tech, who is 80th, can improve their RPI heavily with a good result Thursday.
Tech head coach Tom Stone said the Red Raiders are focused on getting more points in the league and getting math to go their way.
The Red Raiders can stop the Horned Frogs from taking the Big 12 regular season title, but Stone said that is not what they are focused on.
“All we got to do is try to get a result for ourselves,” Stone said, “and if any ounce of our motivation is geared towards negativity towards our opponent, that’s just draining our emotional energy.”
Good to Have Senior Night Last Week, Not This Week
Texas Tech had their senior night Friday against Kansas, where the Red Raiders won 2-1.
Stone said it was good to have senior night last week because it was Tech’s lone Friday night game, there was a football game Saturday, and now, Tech can focus on TCU on Thursday.
“It all worked out for us to have senior night on a one-game weekend on a Friday night with our biggest crowd of the year,” Stone said. “It was a great tribute to those ladies, and yeah, from that standpoint, we take the emotion out of it for this Thursday.”
Super senior forward Kirsten Davis also said the focus can stay on the Horned Frogs instead of the emotions from senior night.
“We just know that we have to focus on the task at hand now,” Davis said, “and not worry about senior night and all the emotions and all that because it’s already behind us.”
Home-Field Advantage
Texas Tech is the only Big 12 team to not lose at home, and their only blemish at the Walker is an Oct. 7 tie against Oklahoma State.
Davis said that the Red Raiders love playing at home and the support the team receives.
“I think there’s definitely an advantage to that and having the Lubbock community and a full stands,” Davis said. “That’s what we all want, and that’s one of my favorite things about playing at Tech is just the community here and all the support that we get from everyone.”
Stone said the crowds have been huge for the Red Raiders all year.
“The crowds have built steadily as people have found us on Thursday nights, you know that’s a change,” Stone said referring to previous years where there were less Thursday games, “and the louder they’ve been, the better we’ve played in a lot of cases, and you know, everybody knows we have a great home-field advantage.
“It can be blowing 20 miles an hour tomorrow and not a lot of people love playing on our turf, so we’re used to it. We don’t mind the wind. If the crowd shows up as they have, it could be a magical night.”
Quick Hits
- Texas Tech will be a top five seed at the Big 12 tournament regardless of what happens Thursday.
- TCU (2.47 goals per game) and Tech (2.18 goals per game) have the top two scoring offenses in the Big 12.
- In conference play, Tech is first in goals per game (2) and TCU is second (1.88), although Tech’s 7-0 win over Oklahoma might slightly skew the numbers.
- TCU is tied with West Virginia for best scoring defense in the Big 12 overall, allowing just .59 goals per game.
- Tech has allowed .88 goals per game overall and 1.13 goals per game in Big 12 play.
- Tech’s Kirsten Davis and TCU senior Messiah Bright are co-leaders in shots on goal in the Big 12 with 18 each.
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