Heather Tarr shares importance of this year's Women's College World Series run

Washington head coach Heather Tarr has returned her beloved Huskies program back to the Women’s College World Series this year. Heading into Sunday’s matchup against Pac-12 rival Stanford, she has the team on the verge of making the Women’s College World Series semifinals.

But even just getting back to Oklahoma City for the first time since 2019 was a big accomplishment for Tarr.

“I think just in general, as you take time away, have space away from things, you just realize these things don’t come around that easy, especially for a program like ours,” Tarr said. “I mean, of course we believe we can do it every single year. But having not done it for the last few years, it’s really special. We really care about our people and how we do it. We’re just really trying to soak it in, but also continue to get better and see how long we can play.”

Tarr has been the head coach of Washington for nearly two decades and has led the Pacific Northwest school to incredible success. The Huskies have never missed the NCAA Tournament in her tenure with eight appearances in the Women’s College World Series.

The Huskies reached the mountaintop in 2009, winning the national championship. It was the first and only title in program history.

Tarr has brought the Huskies to the Women’s College World Series five other times, including three straight years from 2017-2019. Washington made the championship series in 2018, losing twice to Florida State as the Seminoles won their first championship.

The Huskies will have to go through the Cardinal for a chance to get back to the Women’s College World Series finals.

Washington is 2-1 versus Stanford this season, winning the series at Stanford about a month ago.

“I don’t know exactly who we’ll start,” Tarr said. “I think any of the arms that we have can do what we’re asking them to do. But I think just in general, it’s another opportunity to play our game. We got to come back. This is a tough loss for us. It hurts. You want to win this game. It’s like a big difference. At the end of the day you run into another great Pac-12 team that is going to be different than it was when we faced them certainly. We’re excited to play them again. We’re glad we don’t have to wait too long to play and get after it again tomorrow.”