Sportswoman of the Week Ending 6/8/2025

It was a crazy week of sports.  French Open.  NCAA Baseball tournament.  Stanley Cup and NBA Finals.  MLB in midseason form.  But a sport that got the best rating in its history takes center stage.  Softball's Women's College World Series captivated the nation, in addition to the state of Texas.  As Big 12 Texas Tech and their all-world pitcher faced off against Texas, old Southwest Conference (and Big 12) rival who battled through their conference without winning either the regular season or tournament.  In a thrilling three game series that brought tons of eyes to the sport, Texas won WCWS Game 1 defeating Tech superstar NiJaree Canady on a clutch 2-run single in the bottom of the sixth.  Tech answered with a 4-3 win holding on in Game 2.  But Texas delivered the death blow scoring a mind blowing 5 in the first inning and coasting to a girlpile for the Longhorns first National Championship.  Behind it all?  Superstar starter Teagan Kavan who outshined her Red Raiders counterpart.  Kavan set a record with 31 2/3 WCWS innings with no earned runs.  Started both the Longhorns wins in Finals Game 1 and 3.  Finished the season 28-5.  To loosely quote Yogi Berra (at the time regarding Bob Gibson), "I understand how she won 28.  I have no idea how she lost 5."  Kavan is now a Longhorn Legend and the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportswoman of the Week Ending 3/13/2022

All-time home run records are what Ron Burgundy would call a "big deal".  And a new one was set at the NCAA college softball level.  Jocelyn Alo of the Oklahoma Sooners hit her 96th career home run, passing Lauren Chamberlain (also for Oklahoma) for the home run queen title as it were.  Alo did it in her fifth playing season, taking advantage of the COVID extended eligibility.  But before anyone calls this an asterisk situation, her breaking home run came in about the same number of games (224) as Chamberlain (220, okay, four more) and I'd put a plug nickel that you can take the 8 HR away from 2020 and Alo will exceed the career total anyway.  For reference, this was Alo's 8th HR of 2022.  She hit 34 last season.  An all time 3rd through 13th all played 236 games or more.  Alo is a true legend of the sport and her name will forever be associated with power and greatness!  Alo is the Longhorndave Sportswoman of the Week!