Tennessee softball earns unanimous No. 1 ranking for first time ever

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Tennessee softball is the new No. 1 team in the country after a blazing hot start to the season.

The Lady Vols were the only team to go undefeated at the Clearwater Invitational, which had 10 ranked teams in the field. Tennessee notched four ranked wins over the weekend to improve to 10-0 on the season.

The Lady Vols were the consensus No. 1 team in all four major polls this week for the first time ever. The NFCA, USA Softball, Softball America and D1 Softball all had Tennessee at the top of their rankings, and it's the first time since Feb. 11, 2014 that UT has been No. 1 in the NFCA poll.

Tennessee's six wins over teams ranked in the NFCA Top 25 is the most through the first 10 games of a season in program history.

The Lady Vols are outscoring opponents 76-4, and the four runs allowed through 10 games are the fewest by a Tennessee pitching staff to start a season since 2005 when legendary pitcher Monica Abbott was in the circle.

Tennessee's five wins at the Clearwater Invitational included a 4-1 win over No. 11 Nebraska, an 8-0 win over No. 23 FAU, an 11-0 run-rule win over No. 6 UCLA and a 9-1 win over No. 7 Florida State.

Tennessee's offense got better and better as the weekend went on. It hit seven home runs in its final three games, four of them against UCLA. The Lady Vols are outpacing opponents 17-2 in doubles, 13-1 in home runs and 20-2 on stolen bases.

Tennessee's pitching staff leads the nation with a 0.33 ERA through 63 innings. UT has six shutouts on the season with 73 strikeouts, four runs allowed and an opposing batting average of .121.

Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee softball ranked No. 1 by all major polls for first time ever



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