2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 6, 2025

Gerry Glasco

Alexa Langeliers

NiJaree Canady

Demi Elder

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Postgame Press Conference

Texas - 10, Texas Tech - 4

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco and student-athletes, Alexa Langeliers, Demi Elder and NiJaree Canady.

GERRY GLASCO: Tremendous experience getting to come here and play in front of an unbelievable atmosphere that's provided every night in the Hall of Fame Stadium by the softball fans that fill this place.

Just absolutely unparalleled experience as a player and coach, in my opinion. So tremendous crowds all week. And the interest that you're seeing in college softball, I think, is at an all-time high even on ESPN and on TV. It's been an incredible tournament from that aspect.

As far as the play on the field, huge congratulations to Texas. They've got an outstanding ballclub. When the year started, I thought, at the beginning of the season, I would have ranked them as the number one team in the country, a team that I expected to compete really high all year for the national championship.

And I think they came through the SEC, and winning the tournament, you know, a little bit, they had a little spell, seemed like, a month or so to go, but then righted the ship. As they went through the NCAA Tournament, they just kept getting better and better.

I'm thrilled for Coach White. Just absolutely thrilled to see him get that national championship. When you look at his coaching career and his playing career, it's just historic. I think he's won every single regional since he's been a head coach. I think this is his third time in the finals. I'm sure it was a lot.

He had all the great teams at Oregon and he didn't get that title. Then to see him get that and fulfill that tonight, I'm so proud for him and his family, and all the players that have played for him through the years. It's going to mean a lot to everybody. And the Texas program, they just were really talented and really classy.

We play there every year at their tournament. For the last four or five years. And so we have those friendships, that bond. I'm just proud and happy for them and congratulate them on an outstanding tournament and the way they played.

As far as Texas Tech, you know, just for these kids to come out and do what they did, have a new coach, a new coaching staff, three returning players come back from last year, go to work in the first of August and start grinding and grinding and trying to learn how to play for a new coach and a new staff, and then to end up in this position, playing for the national title, making it go all the way to three games, just a historic season. And I'm really proud of my team and the effort that they give us from top to bottom.

I think anytime you get to coach players like Alexa and Demi, our seniors, I'm thrilled for them to get to go out on the biggest stage at the last game of the year. They got every game they could have got. And just really proud of their leadership and what they've been. And it's been really two great individuals that our team has been able to rally behind and help use as motivation to get them to the World Series and try to win the championship.

And on my left, NiJa Canady. I've been around a lot of softball players, I've never been around a better teammate and a better person. Straight-A student all year. Goes to every practice. First one to work, last one to leave. Has played through injury, has played through -- I mean, just gives us everything she's got.

I can't imagine anybody that I'd -- if I had a game in two days, that's who I want beside me to go to war with. She's an unbelievable talent. I believe she's the top player in college softball. I think that she's provided a great role model for any youth softball player in the country. When you know how good she is on the field and how good she is in the classroom and how good of a teammate she is, and her standards of everything is of excellence.

So, our team in general, I'm just so proud to get us to this stage and we're able to find a way to get better and better throughout the postseason, and then to give us everything they give us here at the World Series. I know they're going to be devastated for a day or so. But when they look back on this thing, a month or two from now, they'll realize how much they've accomplished and how historic this season they provided us, and they'll realize that they've set the standard for Texas Tech softball to build off of and go forward with.

Q. NiJa, you've spoken along the way here about how important this all was to you. Now that it's over, can you describe what it took to manage this workload and a bit even about how you were feeling when you left the game tonight?

NIJAREE CANADY: Yeah, I feel like every college softball player right now is tired. Yeah, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing right now, just playing softball and just fighting for the three people to my right. I obviously we wanted a different result, but I wanted to leave it all out for my teammates and most importantly my seniors.

Q. Demi and Alexa, can you guys talk about the fight you guys had? Obviously not the start you wanted, but whether it was the crowd, you guys rallied, and it seemed like you guys never gave up, really, until that final out. Just talk about the fight that you guys had throughout all seven innings tonight.

ALEXA LANGELIERS: I'm really proud of how our team has come together, and I think we've shown that throughout the whole season. It's not just this game that we showed that in.

I think it's just something extraordinary to be a part of. And I know next year's going to be even better for them.

Q. Demi, I would like to ask you, as you sit here now, you've been able to see this program grow. What stands out to you? What are you proud of?

DEMI ELDER: I think the thing I'm most proud of is everyone loves each other. Not one person talks bad about each other. We don't have cliques or anything. We're just a family, and I know that next year it's going to be even better.

Q. Alexa, what has your journey with Coach Glasco meant? Obviously he's an important individual for you to be able to make this trip here, and to be able to get here to this point with him and your teammates from Louisiana obviously?

ALEXA LANGELIERS: It's meant everything to me. Coming in as a freshman, I never expected to truly be here. That was always the goal. That's what we always pushed for. But actually being able to experience it with him is just something I'll never forget.

Q. NiJa, could you take us through the first inning, were you kind of worn out even before the game started with your workload? Do you feel like Teagan has your number in any way?

NIJAREE CANADY: No, I feel fine. Like I said before, I have all summer to rest. And, yeah, she's obviously a really good pitcher. But she got the better hand today.

Q. Demi, in this day and age, it's very easy to change teams, especially when your previous head coach left. What's it been like just where Texas Tech and what this program means to you?

DEMI ELDER: Yeah, I think I had four coaches since I've been here. So a lot of ups and downs and stuff. But to end here and to end with Coach Glasco is probably -- oh, God, I'm going to cry -- it's pretty special. I would tell everyone to go play for Glasco.

Q. NiJa, Texas got to two World Series finals before they won one. This is your first final series. What do you hope to learn from this? What do you think the team has learned from these three games that can help you next year?

NIJAREE CANADY: Actually, that's what I was just thinking about. So many teams here have had to kind of get to the World Series first and learn a lesson and then go back and obviously learn.

Like, Texas did it last year. Obviously Oklahoma had their historic run. It's very rare for a team, especially -- we had three returners. So, yes, this year wasn't how we wanted it to go, not how we wanted it to end.

But to be able to go have a team that didn't even make it to a regional the year before and to push it to a third game in the national championship series, I feel like that means a lot. Yes, that wasn't the outcome we wanted, but I feel like we're all very proud of what we did in literally a year time.

Q. To that point, you're the only one up here that will be back next year. What's the motivating driving factor coming off this, going into next year with a pretty good chunk of this team coming back?

NIJAREE CANADY: I think it's just going to make us better for next year. Like we said, we're losing two amazing seniors, but I feel like we have a really young team. Especially Sam, those last couple innings she came in, and to be a freshman, to have never have played on that stage, to go against that lineup -- I think they held them scoreless, didn't give a run to that lineup.

For that being her first time in the World Series that means a lot. That's just setting us up for next year.

Q. Demi and Alexa, Coach mentioned it. Obviously you're frustrated now, but when you think about this a year from now, what's it going to mean to be part of the team that potentially started the first of many trips to Oklahoma City?

ALEXA LANGELIERS: I'm devastated right now, but at the same time I've looked at this season with fondness. Just being able to be part of something that means so much to the community of Lubbock is something I'll never forget.

And being able to play with this group of girls is just amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

DEMI ELDER: Yeah, I think it's pretty special.

Q. Coach Glasco mentioned it in the opening statement how much softball is growing right now. For all three of you, what's it meant to be part of a program that's putting Tech softball on the map and also softball in general in the viewership of so many new people?

NIJAREE CANADY: It means a lot. I feel like we got, each and every year I've been here, honestly, it just gets bigger and bigger. I feel like more eyes are on the sport.

Of course, that comes with positives and negatives. There's always like negative attention that comes with it. But I feel like for the whole and just growing the sport and just giving younger girls something to look up to, it means a lot.

ALEXA LANGELIERS: I was going to say I think it's awesome to see this sport growing and getting closer to how a lot of people view baseball. And I think one day softball will be on the same level as baseball. And to be a bigger part of why that is is pretty cool.

Q. NiJa carried such a workload for you guys this year. And she's so good. Do you want to lessen that workload next year? And do you think -- I mean, did she just hit a wall in that first inning, or what do you think happened?

GERRY GLASCO: Absolutely. I think that we pushed it to the very limit. I think the kid gave us everything that she had. And I think the first inning was just a result of a great hitting team, a well-coached team, a well-prepared team coming up against somebody they faced three days in a row.

All you had to do was look at the velocity the first night compared to the second night and tonight. And it was slowly edging away.

At the same time, you're dealing with a great competitor, and you can't let her pitch all year and take the ball away from her.

Just the game got us. The game teaches the game. The game got us right there.

What an incredible performance when you look at what she did the whole season carrying our team, especially when you really know the extent of the injuries that she fought through.

And I hated it. I hated to see her -- I almost switched before, and I wish I would have, but it's 2-0, and you are just used to watching her get out of jam after jam after jam throughout the year and come out when somebody makes a threat, she just usually comes out clean.

I was hoping that she would do that one more time. But, yeah, definitely I think the amount of innings got to her.

Our number one goal next year will to develop a couple more pitchers to keep her innings down. She's close to 250 innings. And I think next year we'd love to see her come into the World Series somewhere like 150 to 175.

Q. Talk about the team's fight throughout the night. Obviously not the way you guys wanted it to start, but also the fight the girls had and also how much did it help with the crowd that almost seemed to help rally them in?

GERRY GLASCO: Yeah, I thought it was really important in that first inning -- I wish we could have, our last two games I think we had the bases loaded in the first inning, and really get at least get through the order and get into the top of the order the second time pretty early in the game. And we didn't get off to a good offensive start.

And then Texas come in, I think it was the second batter of the game, hit the high hop to shortstop. When you take into account the speed of the runner, you'd like to charge that ball. But the kid also has unreal speed and beat it out. They had rallies, they got rallied. They had something to rally around.

They're elitely talented. Mia Scott did what Mia Scott has done the whole World Series. She got a great hit. I think Atwood got a hit and next thing you know it's 2-0 and then they get the three-run homer, it's 5-0.

I think the game just didn't go the way we wanted it to go.

Q. Texas has been close two out of the last three years, and they paid some dues to get here, and maybe this was just their moment. What kind of mental notes do you think your girls are taking having gone through this experience, especially with a lot of them coming back along with NiJa?

GERRY GLASCO: I think that this team gave us a phenomenal base to go forward with. Even to get me in a position to go through the World Series and get to play in the final series and then go three games is an experience I needed as a head coach and I'm thrilled I got.

I think we're in a great place to go back in to campus and start working on next year. Believe me, we will. We want to use the accomplishments of this team to be the foundation of the future.

I think I owe it to the senior class. I owe it to those two seniors to make sure this program continues to get better each year. And with everything I have I'll try to come back with a better team next year than we had this year because the players deserve me to do that and the program deserves me to do that.

Q. There's been a lot of conversation, of course, about NiJa and the money she was able to receive to come here as a transfer. When you sit here now knowing what the program was able to do on the field, what is the balancing act of being able to utilize that in recruitment and also be able to grow not just this program but to be able to get more eyes on the sport overall?

GERRY GLASCO: I think there's a lot of conversation about NIL. I'm by no means an expert. I'm not the person to talk on the subject. But I think that it's phenomenal that young athletes are getting in a position where they can come out of their college playing days without having a student loan that they're paying on for the next 10 years.

And I'm thrilled that a player of the caliber of NiJa Canady can take advantage of her success and her hard work that she's given to the sport and given to the school that she's at.

I think it's interesting, you watch Ohio State in the men's football game, national championship game, you don't hear any announcers talking about NIL. They just don't talk about it. And yet, you know Ohio State had one of the highest two or three NIL payrolls last year in college football.

I wonder why we talk about it for a female athlete. Why does a female athlete getting a substantial amount of NIL money when you look at the exposure that Texas Tech softball has gotten this year and on the national stage.

Simply when she signed, I think it was three days after she signed, they said -- somebody told me there was over 700,000 Associated Press-type articles where they said Stanford, Texas Tech and NiJa Canady and softball, all in one -- 700,000 times it got mentioned.

Then you look at the exposure she brought to us, and I think we now played 10 or 11 games on national TV. You're talking 120 minutes.

Why is it different for a female athlete to be paid a million dollars than a male football player getting 3 million or 4 million or a male basketball player? I think that's an interesting question, because the value of NiJa Canady to our program is, I think, unbelievable. I'm not an expert. Somebody could really do an in-depth study. But I have no doubt it would exceed a million dollars of value. I think it was of great value for our school.

So I think that our sport, I'm thrilled for the athletes that are getting to take advantage. I also think that we have to use great caution. I think we need -- it's a new policy. It's a new -- I don't know the right word -- but it's a new situation, and obviously a lot of rules and guidelines need to be used or set, established in the coming years.

But personally, I'm thrilled for NiJa. I found it almost insulting to her at times when I listened to broadcasts, how much they talked about it because, like I said, I don't hear it when we talk about -- when we watch a men's basketball game or a men's football game. And to me that's not right. That shouldn't be that way.

Q. Obviously, the seniors mean something to you, but your connection with Alexa and getting to make this journey with her, what's that meant to you?

GERRY GLASCO: You know, I'm thrilled she was here. Alexa is -- when I left, I didn't get to call every player, the way the whole thing, when I switched out. But I told the seniors, like all the seniors I thought should stay. In my opinion, you probably should stay at Louisiana, especially take a real long look before you make a decision because she had quite a career at Louisiana.

And that's an outstanding program. It's a great place. The fans are passionate. And I thought if all the seniors stayed, they would have a great team.

So my first suggestion was to Alexa was to stay right there at Louisiana. It was her best scenario. And you're also going into your senior year towards graduation. And that's a tricky time to be transferring because of hours and you want to get out of college and get to work.

Long story short, I don't know when it was, but it was quite a bit later. Like five, six weeks later that she called me and said, I went on the portal, and, would you take me.

And even at that point I wasn't sure because I really wasn't wanting to recruit seniors. I wanted to recruit kids that would be in our program for two or three years. I said, come over, we'll discuss it. Because she's a great player and a good person, great person.

And she came over. We sat down. We talked about it. And she came. And it's been really a thrill to get to spend with her and coach her and spend this last semester with her, or two semesters, but especially this semester on the playing field.

I think she worked harder this year than I've ever seen her work hard. She was 4.0 in the classroom in the fall, had a great fall. And then we had a strength and conditioning coach, they gave a strength and conditioning award, and I was shocked when she won that. He thought she worked harder in the weight room than any athlete in our program.

I don't go to weights every day. I very seldom go. But I would have picked a lot of people that I would have thought would have worked harder in the weight room. I thought it said so much about her that she came in here her senior year, and in the weight room the weight coach felt she worked harder than any other athlete on our roster. We have a lot of kids who work hard in the weight room.

So to see her grow and be that determined, her mindset. That second base, I don't know what it is now, but a couple of weeks ago I looked it was .982 fielding percentage. For a middle infielder in the Big 12 Conference to have a .982 fielding percentage, that's elite. And our infield and our defense from the start of the Big 12 Conference has been a really high-level defense. And she was a huge part of it.

To get to watch her grow and finish her career on this stage and in this environment, and then with her individual results and leadership on our team, I think she had a lot to do with Hailey Toney and Bailey having great freshmen years.

I think her senior leadership was huge. So while I didn't originally think that Texas Tech was necessarily a good place for her or a place she should look at, I was wrong. I think it turned out to be absolutely a great senior year for her, and it's that way because that's what she made it. She chose to come here and chose to make it a great senior year.

So I'm thrilled to have been a part of it. I love the kid. I've been around her since I recruited her in high school. So it was a tremendous privilege to get to watch all that unfold.