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CANYON, Texas – The top ranked Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M will jump outside of Lone Star Conference action this Tuesday as they take part in their first midweek doubleheader of the season at PlainsCapital Park in Lubbock, Texas against the Lady Chaps of Lubbock Christian with first pitch set for 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
 
WEST TEXAS A&M
Top ranked West Texas A&M took three-of-four games from Texas A&M-Commerce this past weekend during Lone Star Conference action in Canyon to move to 23-4 with a 10-2 mark in the LSC to sit in second place. WT was led at the plate by Allie Smith who hit .583 with 10 RBI while Renee Erwin hit two homeruns on the weekend to drive in five. Tori Bayer had another strong weekend in the circle as the junior picked up a win to move to 6-0 on the season.
 
THE OPPONENT
The Lady Chaps of Lubbock Christian enter the week with an overall record of 20-6 with a 10-1 mark in Heartland Conference play following a three game sweep of St. Edward's to run their win streak to three games. LCU is currently in their final season of postseason exemption as they complete the full transition to Division II. The Lady Chaps are led by fifth year head coach Daren Hays who led LCU to a 214-40 record during his time in Lubbock, winning the regular season Heartland Conference title in 2014 with an overall record of 45-10 with a 19-4 mark in league play.
 
Lubbock Christian is led at the plate by Sammie Murrietta who is hitting .435 with five doubles and two homeruns to drive in 20 RBI while teammate Sydney Beuthian is hitting .408 with eight doubles and a team leading nine homeruns to drive in 36 RBI this season. In the circle, LCU is led by Courtney McGee who is 10-3 on the season with a 5.70 ERA, tossing six complete games to go along with a save as she has struck out 54 batters and allowed an opponent batting average of .275.
 
THE SERIES
The series between the Lady Buffs and Lubbock Christian is tied at 6-6 with WT taking all four meetings from LCU last season including a pair of run-rule victories as they teams played a pair of midweek doubleheaders at both home locations. The Lady Buffs are 3-3 all-time at PlainsCapital Park in Lubbock, taking the last three meetings from the Lady Chaps.
 
LSC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (MARCH 16)
WT's Allie Smith and Rita Hokianga were named the Lone Star Conference Players of the Week annouonced last Monday afternoon by the league's offices. Smith hit .667 during the ASU weekend with her first two home runs as a collegiate player to drive in 5 RBI for a slugging percentage of 1.333 while also walking three times with just one strikeout to register a .750 on-base clip. Hokianga went 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA as she tossed 11.2 innings against the Belles, giving up two runs on seven hits four walks and 12 strikeouts as she also picked up a save in Game 2 while tossing her second career no-hitter.
 
THE LONE STAR CONFERENCE
Entering this past weekend, Lone Star Conference softball teams were 126-76 overall this season.  In the NCAA South Central Region, the group was 40-18 combined versus Heartland Conference teams and 36-11 against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The overall LSC Champion will be the team(s) with the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games, while the winner of the postseason championship will be recognized as LSC Tournament Champion and receive the league's automatic qualification into NCAA postseason. The single-elimination championship will be played May 1-2, at the No. 1 seed.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Lady Buffs have gone 16-2 inside of the friendly confines of Schaeffer Park this season to continue their home dominance. WT is 124-21 (.859) at Schaeffer Park since the facility opened prior to the 2011 season. 2014 marked the third time in the last four years ('11, '13, '14) that the Lady Buffs hosted NCAA Postseason action in Canyon.
 
NFCA DIVISION II TOP-25 POLL (MAR. 18)
The Lady Buffs picked up 11 of the 16  possible first place votes for a total of 394 points followed by Valdosta State (386), Cal State Monterey Bay (367), Missouri-St. Louis (356), Dixie State (322), Angelo State (318), Alabama-Hunstville (299), North Georgia (291), St. Mary's (245) and Georgia College (240) to round out the top ten. The South Central Region was represented by top ranked WT, Angelo State (6th), St. Mary's (9th) and Metro State (25th). It marks the 56th straight week (386 days) that WT has been atop of the poll dating back to Feb. 26, 2014, the run passes the Valdosta State reign atop of the rankings from March 28, 2012 to March 13, 2013 (51 weeks – 351 days) as the longest in recent history.
 
#CLAUSSTRONG
The Lady Buffs have chosen to play for a something bigger than themselves this season as they join the #ClausStrong campaign for former Lady Buff Amanda Claus and her family. Amanda's father Rick was in a single car accident in Dallas in late December and the father of two has been in a coma ever since. For more info, visit the family's journal at CaringBridge.org. We Are Buff Nation, We Are WT Softball, and We Are #ClausStrong.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The Lubbock Christian Athletic Communications Department will provide live stats and a webstream for both games in Lubbock this week. Fans can also follow the WT Softball Facebook page for updates. For links and more information, visit the Lady Buff Softball schedule page at GoBuffsGo.com.
 
A LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE
The Lady Buffs will once again face a tough schedule in 2015 as they look to defend their 2014 NCAA National Championship. The schedule is highlighted by a return trip to the NFCA Leadoff Classic with matchups against East Central, Western Oregon, Colorado Mesa, St. Mary's and Dixie State along with non-conference action against Lubbock Christian and Oklahoma Christian. LSC play will see matchups with four teams that made an NCAA Regional Tournament last year with #6 Angelo State, Texas Woman's, Midwestern State and Cameron while the Lady Buffs topped fellow NCAA Postseason entrant Metro State, 2-0 on Feb. 14th.