It was a record-setting year for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team, but the coaches and players wanted more.
The Lady Mocs ended their season Sunday with an 11-2 loss to Alabama in the Tuscaloosa Regional, after beating Jackson State and Memphis on Saturday for UTC’s first NCAA tournament wins since 2002 and first-ever appearance in a regional final.
UTC finished with a 44-14 record and a record 20 Southern Conference wins in the 2011 regular season. The winning percentage of .759 was the best in the program’s history, and the Lady Mocs had a SoCon-record 368 RBIs.
“It’s a season that I think a lot of people are going to remember,” coach Frank Reed said Monday at the team’s hitting facility at Warner Park. “Obviously we’ve raised the bar some to say that expectations have to be at least to this point in the future. And that’s exciting with new players coming in.”
In 2012, UTC will have to replace several key seniors from a team that won four SoCon regular-season titles and three league tournament championships: pitchers Nikki Waters and Kandice Irwin, starting outfielders Lyndsey Stiles, Lauren Flores and Della Harrison and slugging third baseman Tiffany Baker.