KNOXVILLE - After starting this season 30-1 and reaching a No. 2 national ranking, Tennessee was reeling at the midpoint of its Southeastern Conference softball schedule.
The Lady Volunteers dropped three consecutive series to SEC opponents for the first time since 2005, a stark departure from their impressive early run.
But as they gear up for their last series of the regular season, starting tonight at Mississippi State, the Lady Vols have returned to their winning ways. Since losing at least two of three games against South Carolina, Georgia and Auburn, they have swept series with LSU and Alabama and taken two of three against Kentucky.
"I think it starts with your pride, and I think their pride took a little beating there in the middle of the SEC season," Tennessee co-head coach Karen Weekly said.
Tennessee (42-10, 12-9) has clawed back to No. 9 in the NCAA's Rating Percentage Index and is tied with Arkansas for fifth in the SEC standings, behind Florida (17-4 SEC), Georgia (15-6), South Carolina (14-7) and Texas A&M (13-8). Each of the top four teams in the SEC will receive a bye at next week's conference tournament in Columbia, Mo., and the top eight teams nationally will be in position to potentially host NCAA super regionals at the end of the month.
"That would be awesome - to be able to host a super regional and to be able to have home-field advantage would be such a big deal," sophomore pitcher Caylan Arnold said. "Our fans are awesome, and they get us hype. So that's our goal going into this weekend."
Tennessee hosted a super regional in 2017 but lost the best-of-three series to Texas A&M. One difference between the 2018 Lady Vols and last year's, Arnold said, is the conditioning level of the pitching staff.
Arnold, who was named the SEC pitcher of the week for her back-to-back wins against Kentucky last weekend, and junior Matty Moss are again Tennessee's primary pitchers. They believe they are in better shape for the stretch run this year.
"Our coaches always say that they want the pitchers to be the best in shape on the team, because we have to be in control and we have to go so long," Arnold said. "Me and Matty were talking about how last year we were tired around this time.
"I know this year we have just done a lot more cardio, very intense bullpens. We pretty much run every day. We do extra cardio as a team. So just having that endurance and strong legs and core, ready to go."
Weekly credited first-year volunteer assistant coach India Chiles, an All-American when she played for Tennessee, with helping the Lady Vols understand the program's tradition and legacy as they worked through their midseason lull.
Now on the other side of the tough stretch with the postseason looming, that message appears to have resonated with the players.
"I think we're just holding ourselves to a higher standard," Arnold said. "We're a great team. We have so much talent. We have girls that can hit the ball like crazy, a great defense and a great pitching staff, and I think we're just finally holding ourselves to the standard that we always should have been."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.