Grace Lyons describes challenges of winning three straight national championships

Oklahoma Sooners star redshirt senior Grace Lyons broke down the challenge of winning three straight national championships after beating Florida State on Thursday night.

Lyons explained that the team understood what the outside expectations were going into the year but needed to maintain its focus.

“Yeah, I think something that way talked about early on in the fall is the expectations from the outside, of what people expect of us, what fans, even like opposition, what they make us see or think on social media,” Grace Lyons said. “The message off the bat was, Eyes are on our circle. We’re going to keep focusing on what we do every single day. Doesn’t matter what the outside has to say. We’re going to do the little things. We’re going to keep grinding, as these players are saying. It’s a grind.”

Grace Lyons emphasized that throughout the process it’s been important to care about themselves more than any outside noise or pressure.

“We work so hard to create a cohesive circle, to where the outside wasn’t that big of an impact on us and our mindset. I think from day one, we had to do that. We had to continue that until now,” Lyons said.

“Even hearing some things now of people trying to get in our circle, the focus is eyes on each other and eyes up to keep it as simple as possible. I think that allowed us to have so much fun just celebrating each other’s wins, little things, because just this team is so unique but so awesome and so great to be a part of.”‘

Lyons went two for three in Oklahoma’s clinching win over Florida State. That included a key home run to help give the Sooners the win.

Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso on winning three straight championships

After the win, Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso emphasized how difficult winning three straight national championships is for a team.

“It is incredibly hard. I don’t know how to explain it. I just can tell you the way I feel right now is free because the expectation is overwhelming, the pressure is overwhelming,” said Gasso.

“They all have each other to laugh with. I’m standing here by myself, so that’s why you’re hearing my voice do this. I know what they’re feeling. I know what I’m feeling. It’s very difficult. It’s extremely rewarding. Like, I just want to go to Costco and shop and no one care that I’m there. They feel the same.”