Texas’ Kayden Henry (Player) and Citlaly Gutierrez (Pitcher) collected weekly (Feb. 12-18) Big 12 softball honors following victories over then-No. 2 Tennessee and then-No. 9 Stanford at the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. The two wins helped Texas rise to No. 2 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25. This is the first time since March 3 and March 10, 2020 that UT has won Player of the Week in consecutive weeks after Reese Atwood procured the accolade for the first week of the 2024 season. Henry was also named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA DI Player of the Week.
 
Henry, a true freshman appearing in just her fourth and fifth career collegiate softball games, was the spark that lifted the Longhorns to victories over the Lady Vols and the Cardinal. The native of Dickinson, Texas went 3-3 against Tennessee with a stolen base while scoring the decisive run in a 2-1 Longhorn victory. She then turned in her first career multi-home run game hitting two against Stanford while collecting four RBIs in the 9-2 UT win. Henry led the Big 12 in batting average (.833), on-base percentage (.833) and slugging percentage (1.833) for the week while ranking top-five nationally in all three.
 
Gutierrez struck out six Tennessee batters while not allowing any extra base hits or walks in a complete game victory. The sophomore surrendered just one run and concluded the game retiring nine of 12 batters. The victory was Texas’ highest over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 1 Oklahoma in April 2022. Gutierrez holds a 0.50 ERA this season with all 14 of her innings coming against top 10 opponents. 
 
A full list of this season’s weekly award winners can be found here.