The 2026 Women’s College World Series schedule is set. For Tennessee softball, which punched its ticket to Oklahoma City this past Friday, it finally knows not only who it will play, but the first-pitch time and broadcast details for its opening game.
On Thursday, May 28, the No. 7 Lady Vols will play No. 2 Texas at 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN.
The winner between Tennessee and the Longhorns will play the winner between No. 11 Texas Tech and Mississippi State. The loser will head to the loser’s bracket in the two-loss elimination format.
The bracket will be played until just two of the eight teams remain standing. Then, it’ll start a best two out of three finals series to determine the champion.
The Women’s College World Series is set 🏆
Catch all the action on the ESPN App 🍿 pic.twitter.com/XRcMGud8Va
— espnW (@espnW) May 24, 2026
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Tennessee enters after sweeping both the Knoxville Regional and Knoxville Super Regional. The Lady Vols defeated Northern Kentucky and Virginia (twice) in the regional before taking down No. 10 Georgia in consecutive games in the supers.
“So proud of my team, the staff, all the work that went into getting ready for postseason,” UT head coach Karen Weekly said. “Big congratulations to Georgia. They are an incredibly tough opponent, which we expected. It’s super regionals. We know what they do, though we didn’t play them in the SEC. Followed them. Tony does an incredible job.
“And I mean, the games were nailbiters. You know, there were moments in the games that could go either way, and the young ladies to my left (Sage Mardjetko and Sophia Knight) really stepped up in those moments and just met them head-on and shifted things in our favor. And, again, just super excited to be going back to OKC.”
This is the 10th-ever WCWS appearance for Tennessee and the third in the past four years. The Lady Vols made the championship series twice, but finished as the runner-up both times.
