KNOXVILLE - Dropping a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal in front of a packed home stadium and national TV audience last Thursday pushed some Tennessee softball players to the brink of tears. It prompted co-head coach Ralph Weekly to say, "We'll take that film and tear it apart."
The host Volunteers' stint in the conference tournament ended sooner than expected, but the experience offered at least one takeaway for a young team that heard good news Sunday, despite its quick SEC exit via a 6-2 loss to LSU.
Tennessee (44-10) received the No. 8 overall seed during Sunday night's NCAA tournament selection show televised on ESPN2. The Vols will welcome Ohio State (35-16), Longwood (28-27) and USC-Upstate (44-11) to Sherri Parker Lee Stadium for a double-elimination regional that starts Friday. The Vols open against Big South champion Longwood that afternoon.
"Hosting regionals, it's going to be the exact same way," Tennessee junior shortstop and national player of the year finalist Meghan Gregg said after the LSU loss. "I'm actually glad we got to host this and see what it's like. It was a little louder tonight. We had a lot more fans. But it was definitely a good experience to see before we get to the regionals."
A new week has dawned, bringing a bigger postseason opportunity for the Vols. For the 13th consecutive season, they are hosting a regional, and their seeding means they are in position to host a super regional as well.
If Tennessee advances through the regional, it would likely host a super regional against ninth-seeded Texas A&M next week. The Vols beat the Aggies two out of three games to close the regular season earlier this month. Texas A&M is hosting a regional that includes Texas, Texas Southern and Texas State.
Speculation swirled that Tennessee's loss to LSU could have dropped it out of the eighth seed, which would have forced the Vols to travel for a potential super regional.
In the end, the defeat didn't hurt Tennessee in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee, even if it did sting at the time.
"I told our kids in the meeting that three years ago we got knocked out in the first round of the SEC tournament and went to the World Series," Weekly said. "We've got a week to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and just see what happens.
"If you look at the teams we beat that were top 10 teams, we've shown over and over and over that we can compete."
Baseball Vols swept
Tennessee's chances of qualifying for next week's SEC baseball tournament in Hoover, Ala., suffered a major setback Sunday.
Host Kentucky beat the Vols 7-2, securing a series sweep for the Wildcats (36-16, 18-9). Tennessee (26-22, 7-18) is now two games behind Georgia in the race for the tournament's 12th and final spot. Georgia (22-30, 9-18) won two of three games against Mississippi State over the weekend to pass the Vols in the league standings.
Tennessee hosts Morehead State on Tuesday and concludes the regular season when Missouri visits for three games, with that SEC series starting Thursday.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.