Tennessee soccer now knows its path to claim its first national championship. After a dominant start to the year, the Lady Vols are a 3-seed in the 64-team field, in the ‘bottom left quad’.
UT will open the event on Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. ET. Tennessee’s opening opponent is a familiar one, though. The Lady Vols are matched up with North Carolina, which Tennessee beat 2-0 earlier in the year when the Tar Heels were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country.
If the Lady Vols can survive a second game against UNC, which will be played in Knoxville, they’d get the winner between 6-seed Texas Tech and UTSA. The most likely opponent in the following round would be 2-seed TCU. Then, it’d likely be 1-seed Vanderbilt or 4-seed LSU for a spot as one of the final four remaining teams.
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Tennessee finished the season 12-3-3 and 6-2-2 in SEC play. The Lady Vols didn’t lose a game until eight games into the year against Mississippi State. Tennessee had risen to No. 1 in the country by that point.
Other losses were to Vanderbilt and then LSU in the SEC Tournament. Ties were with Memphis, Oklahoma and Florida.
At home, Tennessee has been extremely tough to beat. The Lady Vols are 7-0-1 with the lone non-victory being the tie with Florida.
This is the 17th-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the program. It also marks the fifth-straight season in the event. Tennessee has made it as far as the quarterfinals once, in 2018. It’s made the Round of 16 seven times.
This is Joe Kirt’s fourth season atop the program after he took over for Brian Pensky, who left for Florida State. He is yet to get past the second round.
