MONDAY, NOV. 25, 2019 VOLUME 94 ■ ISSUE 27
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SPORTS
OPINIONS
ONLINE
INDEX
Tech soccer team concludes season.
Gender pay gap affects all, especially women of color.
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PG 5
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ONLINE
FOOTBALL
SPORTS OPINIONS CROSSWORD CLASSIFIEDS SUDOKU
5 4 3 5 2
Bowl Dreams Crushed
Junior defensive back Thomas Leggett attempts to stop Kansas State from scoring a touchdown during the Texas Tech vs. Kansas State football game on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019, at Jones AT&T Stadium. The Red Raiders were defeated by the Wildcats, 30-27. SARAH VECERA-KING/The Daily Toreador
Third straight home loss eliminates Tech from bowl contention By MAX HENGST Sports Editor
With the 30-27 loss to Kansas State on Saturday, the Texas Tech football team’s hopes of making a bowl game were crushed on the Red Raiders’ senior night at Jones AT&T Stadium. “It hurt,” sophomore defensive back Adrian Frye said following the loss. “Every week we bust our butts on the fields and in the meeting rooms, and it’s just, this loss is solidifying the fact that we can’t make a bowl game is really heartbreaking. Really devastating.” At the start of the season, head coach Matt Wells said to the fans and media that he wanted to try and go undefeated at Jones AT&T Stadium, trying to replicate the men’s basketball team’s success at home. Before the fans got to see Tech play under Wells for the first time against Montana State, Wells said he recognized how important it was to play well in Lubbock. “We’re excited to play in front of you in Jones Stadium, and we understand how important it is for
us to play well at home in front of our fans, for our alumni and the players that have played in this program before us,” Wells said in a press conference the week of the Montana State game. “We take that as an honor to do that but also a tremendous responsibility to play well in front of our home people.”
Unfortunately, we have come up short again and that will never be good enough in terms of the win and loss and we all know that.
MATT WELLS HEAD COACH
Wi t h t h a t m i n d s e t , We l l s coached the Red Raiders to two early home wins against Montana State and the University of Texas at El Paso. After suffering back-to-back losses to Arizona and Oklahoma, Wells and the team returned to Lubbock to take on a
ranked Oklahoma State team. The Red Raiders defeated the Cowboys, 45-35, to remain undefeated at home as the team improved its overall record to 3-2. “The energy was really, really good in there today, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to make the Jones the hardest place to play in the Big 12,” Wells said following the win over Oklahoma State, “and I understand our team is a big part of that, but so is the fans, and I just appreciate all of them coming out and support our guys through the end.” As the season went on, the success the Red Raiders showed at the start of the season slowly faded away as the Red Raiders dropped to a 3-5 overall record after losing three consecutive games at the hands of Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas. Knowing the team needed six wins on the season to be eligible for a bowl game, the Red Raiders traveled to Morgantown to take on West Virginia with four games left on the schedule. Despite posting a losing record, sophomore wide receiver Dalton Rigdon said the whole team was
bought in and looked forward after knowing the team needed to win three of the last four games of the season to be bowl eligible.
I know that it’s frustrating right now for us. It’s frustrating for our players because we’re so close. MATT WELLS HEAD COACH “I don’t think it’s really that difficult to try and have young men buy in for your older teammates,” Rigdon said regarding the younger players’ mindset before the West Virginia game. “With bowl eligibility and making bowl games, you’re winning, you have to be winning to have that. There’s not a person that comes into this building that doesn’t want to win or doesn’t have the will to go and win every weekend.” The Red Raiders ended up defeating the Mountaineers in Mor-
gantown for Tech’s first road win of the season under Wells’ coaching. The win also put the Red Raiders at a 4-5 overall record, two wins away from making a bowl game. “Our backs are against the wall,” Wells said after the win. “We know exactly where we’re at, and we’re fighting to become bowl eligible and that’s the goal. Now because of the circumstances in October, that’s now the goal. It’ll be backs against the wall for the rest of the way.” With a bowl game in reach for the Red Raiders with home games against Texas Christian and Kansas State, followed by an away game against Texas, junior linebacker Riko Jeffers spoke about the team’s goal heading into the game against TCU. “Get the seniors to leave out as bowl champions,” Jeffers said regarding the team’s goal. “I mean, that’s what the coaches came in and promised our seniors, and that’s what the team has promised our seniors as well. We want to be able to let them leave a great legacy here and be able to have a ring when they leave and just leave their mark on Texas Tech.”
SEE BOWL, PG. 6
CAMPUS
Dorm, campus dining closures set for Thanksgiving break By AUSTIN WATTS Editor-in-Chief
As Thanksgiving break approaches, there are special regulations and closures on Texas Tech’s campus during the break to be aware of. For the break, residence halls on campus are open through Thanksgiving break, but Residence Hall Offices will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26, and re-open at 8 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 2, according to the Tech Housing website. “The great thing about Thanksgiving break, because it is a shorter time frame, we actually don’t close our residence halls for Thanksgiving break,” Leigh Prouty, assistant director at University
Student Housing, said. “All 10 of our residential complexes stay open. Our whole office desk are on reduced hours since, technically the university is closed, and we do lock our main exterior doors.” For students planning to stay on campus during the break, campus dining locations are on reduced hours to start the week, and are fully closed from Wednesday, Nov. 27 to Sunday, Dec. 1, according to the Student Hospitality website. “Students who want to stay in the residence halls, all they have to do, what we prefer they do, is complete the Break Access Request form,” Prouty said. “Let us know that they are staying. Mostly that’s just in case there’s an emergency
in the building, or something like that, we know who’s there.” The Break Access Request form can be found on the Tech Housing website by clicking the “Current Residents” tab then selecting “Thanksgiving Break” in the drop-down menu. The form must be completed by 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26. During the break, residence hall officials may enter the room to perform room checks, Prouty said. These procedures are mainly in place to ensure any unsafe electrical appliances are not plugged in or that a significant amount of trash is not lying around that may cause a pest issue. @AustinWattsDT
DORM POLICIES OVER THE BREAK: • •
Dorm Hall offices will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26 and re-open at 8 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 2. Students wishing to stay in the dorms over the break should fill out the ‘Break Access Request form’ which can be found on the Tech Housing website.
DINING POLICIES OVER THE BREAK: • •
Specific hours can be found on the Tech Hospitality website for Monday, Nov. 26 and Tuesday, Nov. 27. All campus dining locations will be closed from Wednesday, Nov. 27 to Sunday, Dec. 1.