At Texas Tech University, where I'm on the faculty, the softball team is starting to show some signs of emerging from the doldrums. As many of you will recall, the Red Raiders got hot toward the end of the season and made the championship game of the Big 12 tournament, upsetting eventual College World Series participants Baylor and Texas A&M along the way. Whether Tech can break through next year and contend for an NCAA tournament berth based on its regular-season record, remains to be seen. The last time Texas Tech made the NCAA tournament field was in 2001 . The Red Raiders were powered that year by a pitcher named Amanda Renfro, whose career accomplishments included two perfect games and a no-hitter, plus top 10 status in the NCAA record book in a couple of categories. The official Texas Tech athletics website has been tracking down alumni athletes in a variety of sports to do stories on them, and one of the featured athletes is Renfro, now known as Amanda Renfro Simmons

It's now time to look toward next season. To let you know at a glance which key players from the top teams were seniors this past season and thus not returning, and who are some key players who are returning, I present a list below of the top teams' senior losses and top returnees. Further information on who the top players from this past season were can be found by looking at the first-, second-, and third-team NFCA/Louisville Slugger All-America honorees . And don't forget the team-specific home pages in the links section to the right. Note also that with 2008 being a Summer Olympics year, some of the players listed below as returning may redshirt to concentrate on the Olympics (there's a discussion thread at Ultimate College Softball entitled, " Looking at Next Year ," which lists some players who may fall into this category). With these cautions in mind, here we go... WORLD SERIES TEAMS Arizona Seniors: Kristie Fox (SS), Caitlin Lowe (CF), Chelsie M

Well, that was certainly an intense final series between Arizona and Tennessee! I'm taking a few days off from blogging. Check back next week, though, for my end-of-season synopsis of the top schools' senior losses from this year's teams and what to expect next year...

ORANGE CRUSHED -- Arizona Wins National Title Congratulations to the Wildcats! Last chance for Tennessee... Schutzler strikes out... Callahan likewise... Huff walks... Doepking grounds out to third... Dare I say it, the Vols have runners on first and second with no outs in the sixth... After a fly out to left, a wild pitch (or passed ball) puts both runners in scoring position for Posey... An infield hit to third loads the bases for Tennessee's most clutch hitter, Chiles... A liner down the left-filed stripe just goes foul by about 2 feet! Chiles bloops one up behind third base (probably going foul), nice catch by Fox for the second out... Danielle Pieroni to pinch hit (what a spot for a newcomer)... hanging in there with a 3-2 count... strikes out swinging, ending the inning and extending Mowatt's scoreless-inning streak to 16 (during the at-bat, the announcers had quoted the figure at 15 2/3)... Tennessee now has six offensive outs to score at least five

Wednesday night, for all the marbles! Tennessee's last chance, as the Vols come up in the bottom of the tenth... Doepking strikes out... Alexia Clay comes up... and U of A throws away an apparently easy throw to first base on a routine grounder... One out, runner on first, pinch-hitter Anita Manuma steps to the plate... and strikes out... The Vols are down to their last out! Horiuchi up... grounds into a force at second. Game over! 1-0. U of A's Sam Banister slides a line single to left... Bunted to second, one out... Callista Balko up (0-19 in the World Series) also bunts, and the first-baseperson drops the throw to her... Hard to tell, but she probably would have been out, in my view... First and third, one out, for Adrienne Acton... Danielle Rodriguez, inserted as a pinch-runner for Banister, scores from third on an infield grounder -- a very close play at the plate. The key is whether Rodriguez got her hand on the back of the plate, and the ump said "

Arizona's down to its last strike, but forestalls defeat with a bloop single... It's 0-2 on the next hitter, so again, the Wildcats are down to their final strike; this time it's an easy fly-out to center. Vols win 3-0. Monica Abbott puts up "only" eight strikeouts. Tennessee will try to close it out tomorrow night. Tennessee's staging a late rally to get some insurance runs. In the top of the seventh, with two outs and the bases loaded... (cue the Hollywood suspense music)... India Chiles comes up as a pinch-hitter and, sure enough, hits a bloop single up the middle. It's now 3-0 Vols... Shannon Doepking just pulverizes a drive to left, 2-0 Tennessee with one out, top of the fourth... Surprise, surprise. Tennessee frosh Alexia Clay, quiet for much of the World Series, homers with two out in the top of the second to make it 1-0 Vols (the first inning was quite uneventful)... One important development at gametime is that Tennessee's India

Washington vs. Arizona (Game 2) Arizona comes out blazing in the top of the first, with Jenae Leles doubling in Caitlin Lowe and Chelsie Mesa. U-Dub comes up trailing 2-0... U of A adds a run in the top of the third, making it 3-0... With two out in the bottom of the fourth, and no hits to its credit, Washington comes to life with singles by Dominique Lastrapes, Dena Tyson, and Lauren Greer. It's now 3-1... Arizona gets the run back; 4-1 going into the bottom of the fifth... It's getting out of hand: 8-1 'Zona, still batting in the top of the sixth... It's official: Arizona vs. Tennessee, two-out-of-three for the NCAA championship, starting Monday night. Northwestern vs. Tennessee (Game 1) Tennessee's bionic India Chiles, playing with a recent ACL tear as well as a shoulder injury, has gotten yet another hit, in the bottom of the first, and has stolen second! The Vols, with the bases loaded and no outs, avert a disastrous double play and score the game's

Preview of Sunday's Play Arizona (one loss) vs. Washington (no losses) -- These two Pac 10 foes will battle it out on Sunday for one of the spots in the championship round (which begins Monday night). U of A and U-Dub start off Sunday's action at noon Central. Given the double-elimination format, a Huskies' win in either a Game 1 or (potential) Game 2 against Arizona will put Washington in the championship round. Defending NCAA champion Arizona must sweep two, to return to the final round. Northwestern (one loss) vs. Tennessee (no losses) -- Tennessee is in an analogous situation to Washington, with just one win over Northwestern needed for the Vols to advance to the final round. For Northwestern to return to the championship round, it must sweep two from Tennessee. Once the championship round begins, all records are swept clean and the two finalists begin a new two-out-of-three series. Saturday Summaries Baylor vs. Northwestern Northwestern scores two in the top

Arizona vs. Tennessee This game is still scheduled to take place tonight, in spite of the late hour (11:00 Central)... The idea of the Vols' Monica Abbott getting a repeat no-hitter was quickly put to rest, as the Wildcats' Caitlin Lowe led off the game by beating out a grounder back to Abbott. However, Lowe was called out for leaving first base early on a steal attempt. A freeze-frame on the instant replay clearly showed Lowe to have left the bag while the ball was still in Abbott's hand. Two strikeouts follow to end the top of the first. Tennessee's now coming up to bat... Update 1: Abbott gets two key strikeouts in the top of the third to put out a fire and keep the score at 0-0. Arizona got a one-out single with a runner on second, but she had to stop at third. After a strikeout, the Vols intentionally walked Kristie Fox, U of A's hero of yesterday, to load the bases. Abbott then struck out the next batter... Update 2: Tennessee got its first hit of