Tennessee softballwas selected as the No. 7 national seed in the NCAA Tournament on May 10, earning atop-eight seedfor the fourth straight season.
The Lady Vols(42-10) will face Northern Kentucky (26-23) to open regional play on May 15. They'll also host Indiana (42-14) and Virginia (38-13) in the double-elimination regional at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium from May 15-17.
As a top-eight seed, Tennessee has hosting privileges for the NCAA regional and super regional, should it advance. Before the 2023 season, the Lady Vols hadn't been a top-eight seed since 2017.
This is Tennessee's 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance overall and its 22nd consecutive appearance. It will also be the 21st consecutive NCAA regional hosted in Knoxville.
Each team will play one game to open the Knoxville regional on May 15, and there will be two elimination games on May 16. The championship will be on Sunday, with the team coming out of the losers' bracket having to win twice to win the regional.
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The regional winner will move on to the super regionals, which will be played May 21-24. The Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City begins on May 28.
The Lady Vols finished in a three-way tie for fourth place in the SEC at 16-8. Texas and Texas A&M also finished 16-8. Oklahoma won the regular-season title and Alabama finished second with Florida in third.
Tennessee started the season ranked No. 4 and finished the regular season ranked No. 5 in the NFCA poll. The Lady Vols spent five weeks as the No. 1 team in the polls as they started the season 26-0, the best start in program history. They never dropped outside the top 10 all season and secured a signature series win over Alabama.
Cora Hallis the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X:@corahalll;Bluesky:@corahall.bsky.social.Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel:Tennessee softball selected as No. 7 seed, will face Northern Kentucky in regional