University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOLS SET TO HOST NCAA SOFTBALL REGIONAL
May 15, 2005 | Softball
May 15, 2005
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee softball team (59-13) has been selected to the NCAA Tournament, with regionals to be contested from Friday-Sunday. In their third appearance, the Lady Vols will play host to NCAA play for the first time in school history and will welcome three first-time NCAA Tournament participants in Virginia Tech (43-23), College of Charleston (51-16) and Miami University (33-24) to Tyson Park. In the Friday match-ups, UT will play Miami University while College of Charleston takes on Virginia Tech.
"We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to host, especially since we're only beginning the construction of our new stadium, which won't be ready until next year," Co-Head Coach Ralph Weekly said. "All three opponents are very worthy opponents or they wouldn't have been selected for the NCAA Regionals.
"Virginia Tech is a team we play every year in the State-Line Classic and every game has been extremely close. They have a veteran team with a solid offense and a great young freshman pitcher. They have played a tough schedule and Scot Thomas will have them ready to play this weekend.
"We played College of Charleston earlier this season and had a very close game in Charleston, S.C. (4-0 UT win) They also have a lot of very good players and a good pitching staff. They are well coached and fundamentally strong.
"Miami University has to be a very good team to win the MAC. Kristen Hays, who bats in the top five in their order, played one year here before transferring and is a very good athlete. We have never played Miami but review of their box scores and stats reflect that they will be a very strong challenge.
"When you are fortunate enough to reach this level, you need to play every team as if they are the toughest opponent you will play all year. We look forward to the challenge."
The Big Orange has now advanced to two straight NCAA Tournaments. In the school's first foray into NCAA play in 1999, the Big Orange went two and out in Seattle, Wash., with losses coming to Cal State Fullerton (12-1 in five innings) and Washington (12-1 in five innings), before returning to the elite field last year and going 2-2 in Ann Arbor, Mich. (10-0 and 4-0 wins over Illinois-Chicago and DePaul, respectively, before falling to Oregon State, 4-0, and UIC, 6-5).
Virginia Tech earned an at-large berth from the Atlantic Coast Conference. After finishing in last place in the seven-team league with a 4-13 ACC mark, the Hokies went on a run through the ACC Tournament all the way to the championship round before falling to Georgia Tech, 1-0. The Lady Vols and Hokies have a strong history, meeting every year since 1997 at least once in Bristol, Tenn., until this year's match-up was rained out. The squads have split the 10 all-time meetings with every contest occurring in Bristol.
College of Charleston went 17-4 to earn the Southern Conference regular-season championship and then defeated Chattanooga, 8-7, to win the tournament title and its first NCAA berth in school history. The Lady Vols and College of Charleston have only met once and that occurred on March 6 at the Charleston Southern Tournament. The Big Orange pulled out a 4-0 win.
Miami University also will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the initial time in the school's history. The RedHawks finished third overall in the Mid-American Conference regular season with a 13-8 mark and claimed the tournament title with a victory over the top-seeded Marshall Thundering Herd by a 5-2 score. The Lady Vols have won all three meetings between the schools.
Tennessee is currently ranked No. 13 by ESPN/USA Softball and No. 11 by USA Today/NFCA and finished third in the Southeastern Conference Tournament and fourth in the overall SEC standings with a 20-8 mark.
The SEC as a whole saw four teams invited in No. 10 and SEC regular-season champion Georgia (51-13), the Lady Vols at 11th, No. 12 and SEC Tournament champion Alabama (57-13), No. 13 Florida (41-21), Auburn (49-16) and Mississippi State (33-29). The Pac-10 and Big 12 Conferences were the only ones with more teams selected as each had eights squads picked. Michigan (55-4) was named as the No. 1 seed.
Eights teams will be making their first appearance in the tournament: Albany, Central Florida, College of Charleston, Loyola Marymount, Miami University, Robert Morris, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition when possible. The top 16 teams were seeded in order and the remaining teams were placed in regional brackets to create balanced competition.
The regionals are a double-elimination format with two games to be contested on Friday, three on Saturday and one or two on Sunday. The Super Regionals will encompass a three-game series between two teams at campus sites from May 27-28, while the Women's College World Series takes place from June 2-8 in Oklahoma City, Okla.
