Lady Vols prepared for SEC Tournament, pressure of one-and-done

After a long 49-game regular season, the time has arrived for Lady Vols softball to turn up the heat in the chase towards a national championship.

With the SEC regular season title wrapped up, the Vols now have their eyes set on sweeping the regular season and conference tournament crowns - all beginning with their first appearance on Thursday.

The third-ranked Vols will take on No. 9 LSU in the SEC quarterfinals after the Tigers got past Alabama in a 14-inning marathon on Wednesday - which marked the longest game in SEC Tournament history.

Whether the Lady Vols take advantage of a likely fatigued LSU team, the Vols are confident in the new format of the SEC Tournament bracket as single elimination. Instead of the conference beating up on each other in a double-elimination style, head coach Karen Weekly believes it will help them fuel up for regionals.

"I kind of like this format because even though in the back of your mind you know that it's not the end of the season if you lose, if you as a team push yourselves in a sort of win or go home type of urgency, that's going to replicate what you're going to face in regionals and super regionals," said Weekly. "That's when it really could be your last game of the year, could be the last time you're ever in a uniform here at Tennessee. So, I like the pressure that brings and when you have that pressure, it gives you the ability to respond to it."

Win or loss in the tournament, the Lady Vols have themselves set up for another run back to the Women's College World Series - but they'd like to take care of their next goal in line before anything else.

"They have goals and this weekend is another one of those goals," added Weekly. "So it's an opportunity to go play our best softball."

First pitch between Tennessee and LSU is set for 11 am ET from Auburn, Alabama.