What Karen Weekly said after Tennessee beat UCLA to stay alive at Women's College World Series

What head coach Karen Weekly said after her Tennessee Lady Vols stayed alive at the Women’s College World Series with a 5-4 walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth inning against UCLA Sunday afternoon at Devon Park in Oklahoma City:

Opening Statement

KAREN WEEKLY: Well, that was one of the most exciting, intense, emotional games I have ever been part of in all my years of coaching, and I couldn’t be more proud of our young women hanging in there, not letting what happened in the seventh inning costing us the game.

That’s a real battle, and I have to give a ton of credit to the young ladies in our dugout, the young ladies on our bench pouring energy into the team that entire game. They’re the MVP that nobody knows about.

Q.  Karen, curious who had seen the play at home plate to maybe alert the umpires about the review that happened and any thoughts you’re able to give on that whole situation.

KAREN WEEKLY: I think everybody but four people saw the play at the plate. We saw in the dugout that she missed the plate, and then we saw that her teammates had kind of pushed her back. And by rule, that should have been nullified.

Q.  But you notified the umpires of the play to review it?

KAREN WEEKLY: Yes, yes. We went to the umpire and said this is what happened, and then they did their thing.

Q.  Can you take a little bit about Laura Mealer and how you have seen her blossom this season after getting one season under her belt here to be able to come up big today the way she did.

KAREN WEEKLY: There’s something extra special when you’ve grown up in the state of Tennessee and you have Tennessee in your heart, and then you get to put across your chest. I’ve seen that time and time again.

She said it, she pressed a lot this year. It’s her senior year. I think there were some goals she had for herself. And if she didn’t think she was performing to that level, she was putting too much pressure on herself.

But probably about mid-April I think she just kind of turned the corner for us. And Craig and I had a meeting with her and just talked about when post-season comes around, there’s going to be someone that nobody expects. Not the person who is leading the team in hitting, not the people making All-American or All-SEC, and that could be you.

She, I think, heeded that advice and had to do the work on her own to, like she said, let go. But it’s been pretty cool to see what she’s done for us.

Q.  Just a little bit lost, Taylor has the home run, she almost ended it two other times. How big is it to have that All-American bat that’s just flourished this whole season?

KAREN WEEKLY: Taylor is a phenomenal hitter. She’s just a pro when it comes to hitting. She loves hitting. You can see the confidence in her when she goes up to bat. And like she said, I just decided to quit putting so much pressure on myself to get something done. And when you play free, your true talents can shine, and that’s what’s happening with her.

Q.  Karen, to see what Taylor is doing here in this post-season and knowing that she sat out in 2023, what does she mean to this team, and how has she taken the charge?

KAREN WEEKLY: I think when you’re injured it gives you a new perspective. When you can sit back and watch the game, I think you appreciate the game a little bit more and you see things that you never are able to see when you’re playing. So I think she’s benefitted from that.

I also have just seen her grow in her maturity in her at-bats. She shakes off things really, really quickly. And she has a plan when she goes up there, and she’s going to stick to her plan. And she’s willing to go deep in the count to get what she wants.

Q.  Coach, how do you keep your pitcher settled after a situation like that with the home run and everything? What do you do? Do you say something? Do you not say anything? What do you do?

KAREN WEEKLY: Well, during that lengthy review/not review, we talked about if it comes back and it goes against us and we’re tied up, then we keep playing. So we just kept putting them in that mindset, I think, prepare for the worst, and if the best happens, great.

So I think they were pretty good. They talked about it in the locker room, a couple of them were out there dancing on the field. They were just trying to do whatever they could to stay loose there.

Q.  Before the review, obviously Megan Grant is one of the best hitters in the nation, it was kind of an almost similar situation as when — the Oklahoma game. Was there any thought in your mind of do we walk her? Do we not walk her? Just knowing what already happened in this World Series.

KAREN WEEKLY: Yeah, the hitter ahead of her was on first base. Right? Am I right about that? Yeah? Okay. So now we push the go-ahead run to second base into scoring position. We just didn’t execute very well right there. That’s all.

Q.  Karen, what is it about this team that allows them to stay so level-minded throughout dramatic games like you have had today, you had on Thursday? What allows them to stay so level-minded?

KAREN WEEKLY: You know, all season long you talk about the process and just wanting them to focus on the process, and sometimes you see it happen, and other times you don’t.

But, honestly, I think the things they’ve worked on all year are coming to fruition at the most important time. They really do buy into we’re going to play free and not have any regrets, and they’re doing the little things.

Our game plan coming in, actually, this whole World Series, is we’re going to breathe, we’re going to make eye contact. We’re going to have a lot of touching and high-fives. We’re going to have a lot of smiles and play free and leave this place, whenever we do — hopefully it’s next week, end of the week — knowing we have no regrets about how we laid it all on the line here.

Q.  Obviously Karlyn can handle a lot, and you guys got her out after one inning on Friday to get her pretty much two days of rest. After going so long today, how are you feeling about her workload going into tomorrow, knowing you have to win two games to get out of it?

KAREN WEEKLY: It’s a good thing that she had that rest. That definitely helps. You don’t plan to go nine innings and throw that many pitches. But Karlyn is really, really durable. Really durable.

I think that comes from Karlyn is an athlete. She hasn’t just been a pitcher her whole life. This is an absolute stud in volleyball and basketball and softball and could be playing D-I in any sport. So I think that works in her favor.

Tonight is going to be all about recovery and hydration and there’s no tomorrow. Karlyn is going to be ready to come out tomorrow and fight for her team.