For the 20th straight season, the stands at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium will be filled for NCAA regional action.
While the No. 7 seed Lady Vols have made postseason play in Knoxville a yearly attraction, this year’s opening round is set to provide a unique bounceback opportunity for a team that has not gotten ideal results as of late. Tennessee’s offensive shortcomings and mistakes in the field have generated some need for positivity, a mental element of the game that head coach Karen Weekly tries to keep at the forefront.
“I think some people probably wrote us off this year,” Weekly said. “The last couple of weeks, maybe we haven’t played our best softball, but man, we’ve had some really good moments this year. It’s getting your team to believe that we’re still playing pretty good softball and to make sure we stay in a good headspace.”
Belief likely will start at the plate as the Lady Vols hope to get off to a good start in their first game of the weekend with Miami (Ohio). Run production has not been in a winning spot regardless, but providing enough support for SEC pitcher of the year Karlyn Pickens is a luxury that Tennessee has not taken advantage of in recent weeks.
In her last two starts, both losses, Tennessee’s bats have mustered just a single run. To make matters worse, Pickens hasn’t yielded an earned run in either outing.
“Karlyn’s been doing a lot for us in the circle this year,” Tennessee infielder McKenna Gibson said. “I think from an offensive side, we really just need to take a little bit more pride and to back her up a little bit and getting her more runs to give a little leeway.”
If Tennessee wants to keep the home field turnstiles open into the super regional round, it’ll have to deal with one of the harder regional contingents in the country.
The RedHawks will be flanked by Ohio State and North Carolina, a pair of at-large teams that bring their power conference experience into Knoxville. Miami (Ohio) returns to the same regional site for the second consecutive season, touting a MAC championship.
“We always expect a tough regional here,” Weekly said. “It’s not unlike things we’ve had before. If you want to progress in this tournament, get to supers and then onto the World Series, it’s going to be hard. It doesn’t matter who you are.”
Tennessee’s No. 7 seed is its lowest since 2022 when the Lady Vols were eliminated at home in the regional round as an 11 seed following back-to-back losses to Oregon State.
Gibson is one of two remaining players from that squad, a sour experience that she hopes to draw from as she now nears the conclusion of her college career.
“It’s a little bit different,” Gibson said. “I know what postseason looks like. Freshman year, I was like, ‘oh, okay, this is really cool.’ I had no idea what the regional, super regionals would be like. Just being able to have those same emotions, knowing that we still have the opportunity to play next weekend. But at the end of the day, just hearing your name, it’s cool.”
