Karen Weekly reveals Tennessee's mindset prior to elimination game vs. Florida

Tennessee appeared to have the four-time defending national champions beat during its opening game of the 2025 Women’s College World Series on Thursday. That all changed in one swing of the bat from Oklahoma‘s Ella Parker during the bottom of the seventh inning, launching the Sooners to a 4-3 victory over the Volunteers.

Karen Weekly’s team had just over 24 hours to regroup, as they were now facing elimination in Oklahoma City. Set to take on No. 3 overall seed Florida on Friday, it took the Volunteers just five innings to finish the Gators.

“Last night in the locker room it was, ‘Hey, get our heads up.’ There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves. Blank happens, and it just did, and we can’t dwell on it,” Weekly said. “We can’t try to pick it apart. We just get ready to play ball tomorrow. Our backs are against the wall. We have been here before. Let’s go do this.”

The somber feeling would linger around the locker room after Thursday night’s walk-off loss. Once the Tennessee softball team had a chance to sleep it off, however, Weekly knew her team was ready to compete.

“This morning when I walked into breakfast, it was all laughter and noise and joking and smiles, and you never would have known what happened (Thursday) night,” Weekly continued. “And that’s the way you want your team to be. You watch them play, you don’t know if they’re up 10 or down 10. You want them showing up energetic, playing free and playing for each other every minute.”

That’s exactly what the Volunteers did against the Gators on Friday. Tennessee set the tone early, scoring a whopping seven runs in the first inning before following that up with two more in the second. The Tennessee bats scored a run each in both the third and fourth innings to round out their scoring efforts on the day.

Florida earned three runs back in the fourth inning, but by then the lead Tennessee had built was too great and the game ended after five innings. While the Volunteers avoided elimination on Friday, they’ll be facing it again when they take the field in Oklahoma City on Sunday as they await the loser of Texas Tech vs. UCLA. First pitch for that matchup is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET and will air live on ABC and ESPN+.