After this weekend, Ashlan Clarkson and Tara Tembey will never play another softball home game for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. But with a Southern Conference regular-season championship at stake, the seniors have more important things on their minds.

UTC (34-15, 12-1) needs two wins to clinch its second straight regular-season SoCon title. But as the team’s veteran leaders, Clarkson and Tembey are just as motivated by past failures as they are by memories of success.

“We choked last year,” Clarkson said of the Lady Mocs’ early exit from the 2007 conference tournament. “But this is a more confident team. We’re a more clutch team. We get it done in late innings and when we really need it, more so than we have in the past.”

That confidence begins with the upperclassmen and trickles downward, UTC coach Frank Reed said. As the only seniors on a freshman-filled team, Clarkson and Tembey have been counted on to provide toughness and leadership, teaching the habits that have helped to build the Lady Mocs’ winning tradition.

“When you bring a lot of young kids in, they look to the older kids to see what’s acceptable,” Reed said. “What do we need to do? What do the coaches expect? It’s so much easier to get that across when you have upperclassmen who model that, and who can take the freshmen by the horns and say, ‘Hey, this is where we’re going with this.’”

Their leadership is consistent but in different ways. Outfielder Clarkson is known for her defense, while Tembey ranks in the SoCon’s top 10 in nine offensive categories. She’s second on the Lady Mocs with a .325 batting average and has 16 extra-base hits, 22 RBIs and 30 runs scored this season.

Tembey has roamed the diamond — playing middle infield, outfield and even catcher during her UTC career. She is generally laid-back, while Clarkson is full of energy. And while Tembey traveled 2,394 miles to Chattanooga from her hometown of Folsom, Calif., Clarkson made a short trip from Chickamauga, Ga., where she starred at Gordon Lee High School.

On the softball field, their shared goal is what counts.

“Tara and I have one thing in common,” Clarkson said. “We want to win.”

They’ve done that, racking up a career record of 149-96. This season has a chance to be their most successful, and if the Lady Mocs can win two of their final six games — which include this weekend’s series against College of Charleston and next weekend’s visit to Georgia Southern — they will enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed, with a chance to atone for last year’s postseason flameout.

But with only one more series left in front of their home crowd at Frost Stadium, the seniors realize this weekend is about more than just taking care of business.

“I just want to lock it up on Saturday by winning both games,” Tembey said. “Then Sunday, senior day, we can just celebrate.”

Saturday’s doubleheader against the Cougars is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday’s game starts at 2.