Texas experience tops Tennessee softball, which falls short in WCWS semifinals again
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OKLAHOMA CITY – The odds were in Tennessee softball's favor going into the Women's College World Series semifinals.
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The No. 7 seed Lady Vols had to lose twice to miss their first berth in the championship series since 2013 – but when faced with the very best the reigning national champions had to offer, they did just that.
Tennessee lost 5-2 to No. 2 seed Texas in the first game at Devon Park on June 1, forcing an elimination game for a trip to the finals. When the moment was bigger than it has ever been for this young Lady Vols team, they were bested by the Longhorns, who had been there, done that before.
Texas returned the core from its national championship team, while Tennessee only had four hitters in its lineup from last year's WCWS run. When the stakes skyrocketed and demanded the best players rise to the occasion, that experience separated the Longhorns.
In the second game of the day, Tennessee (49-12) was eliminated in a 4-0 loss to the Longhorns (51-12), ending a roller coaster of a season in the WCWS semifinals for the third time in the last four seasons.
The best pitching staff in the nation can only take you that far, Tennessee has learned, if your offense can't mount a threat against elite pitchers who can hit another level with everything on the line – like Texas ace Teagan Kavan, who was the 2025 Most Outstanding Player after winning the national title.
The Lady Vols mustered just two hits against Kavan in the elimination game.
"There's a lot of things there, and I take full responsibility for it," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. "I think, number one, your preparation, knowing what you're going to face and being ready for it. Also knowing how to handle the moments when somebody is dealing, like Teagan Kavan was today."
Weekly believed the Lady Vols got a bit frustrated at times, which took them out of some at-bats. She saw them chase pitches out of the zone and take strikes in the zone, which told her they were overthinking it.
"Part of that is maturity with players. Part of it's preparation and making sure that they're ready for those moments," Weekly said. "Ultimately, it falls on my shoulders, and I take responsibility for it."
But this Texas team is an example of what Tennessee could turn into in time. When the Longhorns' senior class was freshmen in 2023, they lost to the Lady Vols in the super regional, but they left an impression on Weekly. She said on May 27 that she remembered thinking when those freshmen got more experience, they were going to be "an exceptional team."
That senior class just powered the Longhorns back to a third straight WCWS finals appearance.
The concept of a team growing into a contender like Texas gets overlooked sometimes, Weekly said, with how many of the upperclassmen in their starting lineup signed with Texas out of high school and have played nearly every inning since they set foot on campus.
"You can't put a price tag on that. It's incredibly valuable," Weekly said. "Of course you're going to add a piece here or there, but when you can do it with a nucleus that grows up together in your program and understands who you are and what your culture is all about and they can learn from the mistakes they make and bring them into next year together, that's really valuable."
Tennessee has the opportunity to follow that path with the way it has stacked talented recruiting classes. All it has to do now is keep them in Knoxville, and hope that their experience leads the program to the place it has now eluded it for the last three trips to Oklahoma City.
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; 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 beat by Texas' WCWS championship experience