Everything Ashley Chastain Woodard said at Welcome Home Tour in Rock Hill

South Carolina softball coach Ashley Chastain Woodard spoke to the media in Rock Hill at the final Welcome Home Tour stop on Monday. Here’s everything she had to say.

How have the last 24 hours been since learning you guys are going to be a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament and hosting?

“I don’t know if it’s settled down. We had a full day of planning and just kind of prepping for the tournament. When you host, there’s just a lot of different things that you got to go through. So it was an exciting day, and I know the team is really excited still, but we’re looking forward to it. It’s a great draw. We have some familiarity with Virginia. We played them twice the first weekend, which, at this point, seems like a year ago. We’re a very different team at this point, and so are they. So it’s kind of like we have a lot of data and information, but going back to just kind of scouting them with fresh eyes of how they’re playing right now. And then, obviously, have a good North Florida team and an Elon team that’s hot, they won their conference tournament. So we don’t want to overlook those guys, but we’re really excited about the matchup.

“You kind of go from facing SEC offenses every weekend for a couple months, and then you kind of reevaluate, okay, like, what do these offenses look like? Looking at it today, most of them are pretty right-heavy, which we’ve faced some very dynamic left-handed lineups the past couple weeks in Alabama, Texas A&M, you know, I can’t recall them off the top of my head. But a lot of righties in the orders that we’re going to face this week, which fares well for (Sam) Gress to be honest with you. So I expect a good performance from her this weekend. She’s just a key piece for us moving forward, every game we play.

“But I do think part of our success will lie in how (Nealy) Lamb and (Jori) Heard throw. We want to give them the ball. We want them to be contributing factors in the success that we have this weekend. So I think just making sure that they’re prepared for the roles that we’re going to ask them to do will be key for us. But we’re in a good spot. We’re going to practice all week. I think the team is just really ready to play.”

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You brought in a lot of players with you who were in the NCAA Tournament and some players who haven’t been here before. Have you talked to them about how it’s a little different being a host and playing at home?

“It is different, for sure. I think it’s, you know, we’ve played well at home. You really, kind of, like, dig down into our schedule and really evaluate how the season went for us. I think we’ve played better at home. We did win on the road at LSU, but I think we’ve played really well at home. So I think it’s kind of a little bit of sigh of relief just being able to be home, you know, in your routine at your facility, in front of your fans. So I think, if anything, it’s a positive thing for us. Maybe it takes a little bit of an edge off of going somewhere else. So I just think they’re excited about it. Tickets went on sale this morning at 10, and we’ve gotten great feedback all day of just, you know, we’re selling a lot of tickets, so I’d expect it to be a good crowd.”

You didn’t get a chance to go through this type of experience when you were a player here at Carolina. Does it feel any different now that you’re going through it as a coach, leading your alma mater to the postseason, as a host?

“Yeah, it does. It feels a lot different. I think the sport has changed so much since I played it in my time at Carolina. It’s bigger, it’s better. There’s just a lot of interest. The sport is growing nationally. We have a lot more attention, a lot more investment, financially, resources, like all kinds of things. So it’s different. It feels very professional to me. I mean, not that my experience did not feel professional before, but there’s just some aspects of what we do now that we did not do 15 years ago. So yeah, it’s a big deal. I’m just really happy to bring the tournament to Columbia, to our fans, for them to enjoy, and, you know, to get more people behind the program, because it’s like I said, it’s an exciting sport. I think a lot of people are starting to get interested in it, and they have an opportunity to see some of the best softball that’s going to be played in the postseason here at home.”

Have you kind of had to talk to the players, with you guys potentially hosting both a regional and Super Regional, about keeping everything in perspective?

“We will have a conversation all week with them about that, but it is important that we stay in the present moment of, you know, you know, we’ve got to beat Elon first, and then we get the winner of Virginia and North Florida. And just kind of working our way through the regional, I think, is important. Hopefully, we play three games, and it feels kind of like a series for us, even though we’re playing a different opponent every time, if that’s the way it shakes out. But it’s hard to predict. You kind of don’t want to get caught in that game of really predicting exactly what’s going to happen, except for last night when I was predicting what seed we were going to be.

“But yeah, you just kind of want to stay in the game you’re playing. It’s kind of, you start over 0-0 with your record. It’s the postseason. It’s like anything can happen at this point. Obviously, the matchup is us and Virginia, just from a statistical standpoint, being the one and the two (seed). But you know, who knows how it’s going to shake out. And then as a staff, we will have our eye on the UCLA regional, just kind of seeing how that’s going throughout the weekend. But the team will be here, where our feet are, focused on all the opponents that we have here this weekend.”

How important was it, seeing that you guys wouldn’t have to hypothetically travel to somewhere like Los Angeles for a Super Regional? Just how big of a deal is it between getting that top-eight seed and being on the outside?

“Yeah, it’s huge. I think statistically, I don’t know exactly what percentage, but like, when you play at home, you typically win, you know? And so I think it’s our best shot at getting to Oklahoma City for sure. UCLA is really good. San Diego State’s really good. So we’ll see how their regional shakes out. But I mean, to cross over three time zones and have to play on the West Coast, we haven’t gone out there this year. I might feel different if we had played a tournament out there in the preseason, but we didn’t. We stayed close to home all preseason. It’s a big deal for us not to have to fly out and get adjusted to being out there. And everything is different once you start crossing time zones. So it’s huge. It’s really huge for us. And hopefully it works to our advantage.”

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