Someone is missing from the Women’s College World Series.
For the first time since 2018, the finals won’t include Oklahoma, the record-setting, four-time defending national champions. The Sooners were bounced from the tournament on Monday by Texas Tech and star pitcher NiJaree Canady, ending one of the greatest runs by any team across any sport in NCAA history.
But Texas will be there, and probably happy to see the Red Raiders, not the Sooners.
Since 2022, the Longhorns have dominated the tournament against every opponent but Oklahoma. Texas is 10-5 overall in Women's College World Series play over this span but 1-5 against their rivals, getting swept in the finals in 2022 and again last season to highlight the immense gap that had separated the Sooners from the field. The one win came in Saturday’s 4-2 victory that left the Sooners on the brink of elimination.
That Oklahoma is no longer in the Longhorns’ path makes them the favorite to capture the first national championship in program history. But that will require getting past Canady, the Stanford transfer who has almost single-handedly carried a program without any significant history of success to the summit of the sport.
