A little after three in the afternoon on Sunday, Karen Weekly took to X to share a video of her team singing “Rocky Top” on their bus. And why not — they have started the season 10-0 after all.
Tennessee softball is off to a scorching hot start to open its 2026 campaign. The mantra of the season was “dominate,” and to this point, the Lady Vols have more than lived up to the word. The Lady Vols have outscored their opponents 76-4 over those 10 games. More impressively, they have run an early-season gauntlet, defeating No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Florida State, No. 7 UCLA and No. 8 Nebraska.
“What I’m proud of is, we’re not really talking about opponents and their rankings,” head coach Karen Weekly said. “I’m proud of them for just going out there and playing Tennessee softball, not worrying about who’s on the other side of the field, what the name is on the uniform, or what the media is saying about them.”
In those games alone, they outscored those teams 26-2. In sum, they have clubbed each team that they have played, and they look every bit like a team on a mission.
The most obvious reason for their early success has been the pitching staff. As a group, they have tossed six shutouts, and they have yet to allow more than one run in any game so far. Their team ERA is 0.33. Simply put, they have been brilliant all season long.
“I love playing behind all our pitchers,” infielder Ella Dodge said. “They’re all so competitive, super proud of Sage and Erin this weekend, they did great. We hit off them in practice all the time, and I’m glad they’re on our team because those are some hard at-bats in practice.”
It would be easy to credit Karlyn Pickens with the success of the pitching staff, but such a conclusion is mistaken. She has been outstanding this year, having not allowed an earned run through 24.1 innings of work. However, the ladies around her have been simply tremendous, and the one who has arguably been their best this season from the circle has been Erin Nuwer.
The sophomore from East Aurora, New York, has taken the stage by storm, announcing herself as co-ace of the Lady Vols by going 5-0 and not allowing a run in any of the 20 innings she has worked to this point. She no-hit BYU on opening night, demonstrating her potential as an ace. Her one-hit shutout of UCLA, perhaps the most explosive home run-hitting offense in the nation, was a declaration of her arrival.
“We’re just seeing the Erin we recruited, and the Erin that we knew was in there,” Weekly said after the UCLA win. “All she needs to do is trust her stuff and go compete, and she’s doing that this year.”
Such dominant displays resulted in her recording three wins, and her work earned her SEC Pitcher of the Week honors.
While Nuwer and Pickens have led the way, the rest of the stable has followed the standard they have set. Sage Mardjetko has been terrific to open the season. Maddi Rutan has thrown the ball very well when called upon. Even Peyton Hardenburger, a true freshman, flashed the potential that made her such a well-regarded recruit with three quality innings versus James Madison.
“To be able to pitch shutouts against quality offenses like we’ve seen, and we’ve started four different pitchers, and none of them have been Karlyn Pickens,” Weekly said after the UCLA win.
No matter who Weekly has called upon, they have delivered excellence. She said she wanted to take the load off of Pickens’ shoulders entering the season, and to this point, she has the talent and depth in the pitching staff to do so.
As well as the pitching staff has performed, the team approach and emphasis on “process” has been a recurring theme through the early part of the season.
“Just ‘cause you win one day doesn’t mean you’re gonna win the next,” Dodge said. “Remembering that we have to stick to our process, take it one pitch at a time, and it doesn’t matter who’s across the field, we need to focus on what we need to do.”
Weekly said that her team did a good job of sticking to their process through the weekend, and even when they strayed from it, they got back to it. When asked about how her team is able to flush results, both good or bad, Weekly said that it just comes from delivering the message repeatedly.
Message received.
“What’s in the past is in the past, stay in the present, be where our feet are and compete,” Dodge said.
She also said that being selfless and relying on each other is an important part of their process. Taking such a team-oriented approach appears to be paying dividends offensively – 10 Lady Vols have at least two RBIs this season.
In conjunction with this theme, there seems to be a different name sparking the lineup every night. Some nights it’s Dodge, others it’s true freshman Elsa Morrison. It also helps that Sophia Knight and Gabby Leach always seem to be on base. They each have an on-base percentage north of .500, and they have scored a combined 23 runs.
There are many names to list because so many of them are contributing, and it all seems to stem from their process. Still, they don’t have time to get caught up in the success, lest they get away from the mentality that has driven them to this point.
“It’s all about being focused on the job at hand and the moment, keep it simple, keep it small, and when that’s over, you move on,” Weekly said.
Though the Lady Vols’ perfect start to the season is encouraging, they have only played 10 games, and there is a long way to go. While everything is going swimmingly on paper, Weekly wants to see more.
“Still a lot of room to grow,” Weekly said. “But you know, overall I’m very pleased with where we are at this stage of the season.”
