NEW IDENTITY
LADY VOLS MORE CONFIDENT ENTERING REMATCH AT UGA
KNOXVILLE — With the scoreboard behind him showing an eight-run loss on April 1, Tennessee softball co-head coach Ralph Weekly stood on the Lady Volunteers’ home field and admitted that in 16 years with the program, he couldn’t remember such a situation.
His team had lost four of five conference games.
“Right now we’ve got to find ourselves,” Weekly said that day.
It took time. Georgia earned a series victory over Tennessee with an 8-0 win the next day, and the Lady Vols lost a third straight SEC series the next weekend.
Eventually, however, the Lady Vols found themselves.
This weekend, they find themselves on the doorstep of the Women’s College World Series and with a shot at redemption against the team that helped sink them to an unprecedented low point last month.
No. 10 seed Tennessee (48-12) and No. 7 seed Georgia (46-11) begin a best-of-three NCAA super regional series at 5 p.m. today in Athens, Georgia.
“We were definitely at a low point in our season when Georgia came in here,” co-head coach Karen Weekly said. “I’m not sure it would have mattered who it was coming in, but Georgia capitalized on every mistake we made, whether it was physical or mentally not being resilient.
“But that was a long time ago, and I do think we’re a different team and I think we’ve learned a lot as the season has gone on.”
The Tennessee team that played Georgia during the regular season was worried about the big picture, star senior shortstop Meghan Gregg said. The Lady Vols had risen to a No. 2 national ranking after a 30-1 start before losing three games at South Carolina ahead of the Georgia series, and they were still reeling at the season’s first signs of prolonged adversity.
“When we played Georgia, I think when they scored one run, we were down and we weren’t coming back up,” Gregg said. “I definitely see a big change in our mentality and attitude.”
A focus on fundamentals — a return to the basics — has been the catalyst for Tennessee’s rebound, Gregg explained.
One major difference in this weekend’s meeting compared to the earlier series is the Bulldogs are without star senior pitcher Brittany Gray, who was lost for the season last month with a biceps injury. Gray was 16-1 with a 0.48 ERA that led the SEC and was second nationally.
Georgia sophomore Mary Wilson Avant (11-3) was the starting pitcher in each game as the Bulldogs swept the regional they hosted last weekend. She earned the win in two of those games, with junior Kylie Bass (14-3) getting the other win and a save as Georgia used at least two pitchers in each game.
“That’s such an unfortunate injury, because she
was having a phenomenal year, possibly could have been the SEC pitcher of the year with the way she was throwing the ball,” Karen Weekly said of Gray.
“But they have a tremendous offense. Tremendous offense. So it’s going to be a battle. It’s
going to take us playing really, really well down there to achieve our goals. But I like the way we’re playing right now.”