Twenty-four hours after Montana Fouts’s record-setting night, the Utah Talons found a different way to beat the Texas Volts — and it still ended with Texas searching for answers at Dell Diamond.
Megan Faraimo tossed a complete-game five-hitter and three Talons connected for their first home runs of the season — Caroline Jacobsen, Tayler Biehl and Sahvanna Jaquish — in a 6-1 Utah win Friday that pushed the Volts to 1-6 and the brink of a home-series sweep. The trio had combined for three hits in 47 at-bats entering the night; against Texas, their homers drove in four of Utah’s six runs.
The Volts’ lone run came on Aliyah Binford’s solo shot in the fourth — her third homer of the season, all of them solo blasts. Binford extended her hitting streak to six games, the longest by a Texas batter in 2026. But Faraimo scattered five hits with five strikeouts over seven innings, and the Volts went 1-for-8 in advancement opportunities.
Canady’s longest outing
The developmental headline belonged to NiJaree Canady. The No. 2 overall pick in the AUSL draft made her second start and worked five innings — her longest outing as a professional — recording her first career AUSL strikeout in the third when she set down Utah’s Kailey Wyckoff. She left trailing 3-1 before Binford surrendered two earned runs in relief and Sydney Berzon made her first Texas appearance in the seventh.
The Volts knew they were building in real time. Ricci Woodard had previewed Canady’s start the night before with something closer to anticipation than expectation.
“I’m excited,” Woodard said Thursday. “You’re gonna get to see NiJaree Canady, and she’s been working really hard at her craft right now. I think she’s gonna be fun to watch.”
From rivals to teammates
Less than three weeks earlier, Canady and Leighann Goode were on opposite sides of the sport’s biggest stage. Twice.
In the 2025 WCWS Championship Series, Goode — a Texas infielder — capped a five-run first inning in the deciding Game 3 with a two-out, three-run homer off Canady. Texas chased the ace after a single inning and rolled to a 10-4 win and the program’s first national title.
A year later, same stage. Canady and the Red Raiders reached the WCWS finals again; Goode and Texas were waiting again. Canady went the distance in the clincher, but the Longhorns won 4-1 to complete a two-game sweep — and Goode drove in the final run with a seventh-inning RBI single off Canady. Two championship series, two Texas titles, and a rivalry that defined college softball’s last two seasons.
Now they share a dugout in Round Rock, both wearing Volts purple, both trying to learn the professional game together. Woodard said the two clicked immediately.
“When you put females in a new atmosphere with a new group, most of the time they understand that team chemistry is kind of what drives this thing a little bit,” Woodard said. “They, right away, met up and talked, and both of them have said in huddles, right away, they were happy to be here. I think that helped on both sides.”
Goode backed it up Friday with her glove: she was involved in seven of Texas’s 21 outs at third base, including all three in the second inning. She is learning a new position — third base, after four seasons in the middle infield at Texas — and doing it beside the pitcher she twice helped beat in the national championship series.
That is what the AUSL is asking of its rookies: forget history, build forward.
Staying focused in a losing stretch
The score said 6-1 Utah. The larger picture said 1-6 and sinking. And the Volts were not pretending otherwise.
Thursday night’s loss to Fouts had come with a home-opener atmosphere that momentarily masked the sting. By Friday, the crowd was smaller and the margin wider, and Woodard’s messaging to her group was about process, not results.
“None of us expected to be 1-and-5 going into this,” Woodard said. “For them to just continue to compete is huge for us right now.”
She pointed to Jennings as the player doing the best job of leading, and praised Sierra Romero for keeping younger players motivated even while working through her own slow start.
“I think Jennings is still probably the one that does the best job of leading, and she kind of understands her role,” Woodard said. “Sierra Romero’s also done a good job of just trying to keep those younger kids going and motivated and helping them understand, and just to keep competing.”
Aminah Vega stayed hot, posting her team-leading third multi-hit game and pushing her line to a hit in six of the Volts’ first seven games — the steadiest bat in a lineup still searching for rhythm.
The Volts played errorless ball for the second time this season and turned two double plays. The process boxes kept checking. The results did not follow.
Saturday’s finale
Saturday brings the series finale. Utah can complete the sweep; Texas is still looking for its first home win.
For now: Canady’s five innings and first strikeout sit next to another loss. Goode made seven of Texas’s 21 outs at third. Binford’s solo homer — her sixth straight game with a hit — was the only Volts run on a night Faraimo dominated.
Anthony Rivera, Dell Diamond press box. Stats from the official AUSL box score; Woodard quotes from the June 18 postgame press conference.