Virginia Softball Confident Ahead of Long-Awaited Return to NCAA Tournament

Virginia Athletics

This has already been an historic season for the Virginia softball team. The Cavaliers have won their most games (32) since 2010, set a program record for most ACC series wins in a season by claiming victory in seven of their eight conference series, posted their best finish in the ACC since 2010, and are now participating in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010 and just the second time in program history.

But despite the tremendous heights this team has reached in what has already been in a breakthrough season, these Cavaliers are nowhere near satisfied.

"We were excited to see our name for the first time but we're not done yet," said senior catcher Leah Boggs. "The goal was to make it to a regional and then the goal was to win a regional and we had both of those goals at the beginning of the year and I think everybody's really bought into it."

Boggs and the Hoos are headed to Tennessee for the Knoxville Regional at the 2024 NCAA Softball Championship. The regional is hosted by No. 3 overall seed Tennessee, who is joined by UVA, Miami (Ohio), and Dayton. Virginia will take on Miami in the opening game of the regional on Friday at 12pm (ESPN+) at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. Tennessee will take on Dayton in the second game on Friday at approximately 2:30pm. The winners and losers of those two games will face each other on Saturday as the double-elimination regional plays out over the course of the weekend until just one team is left standing and advances to the Super Regional round of the tournament.

Interestingly, both of Virginia's all-time NCAA Tournament appearances have sent the Cavaliers to Knoxville. Back in 2010, UVA earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid and suffered an 11-2 loss to Tennessee and a 7-4 loss to Louisville in the Knoxville Regional.

Virginia's return to the NCAA Tournament has been a long time coming. After that 2010 postseason appearance, the Cavaliers turned in sub-.500 records in 10 out of the next 11 seasons, including each of Joanna Hardin's first five seasons leading the program after taking over as head coach in 2017.

The game-changer arrived when Palmer Park officially opened in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. UVA's move from the dilapidated facilities at The Park to its new state-of-the-art home at Palmer Park had a tremendous impact on recruiting. The Cavaliers have steadily improved over the last four seasons, including consecutive 30-win seasons for the first time since 2005, a run that culminated in the program's first NCAA Tournament bid in 14 years.

Reaching the NCAA Tournament is particularly special for Boggs and the seniors, a class that arrived in 2020 and has been a pivotal part of the turnaround of Virginia softball.

"Every group of girls that I've played with has played a huge role in getting us to where we are today. But it feels extra special to be the last class, the seniors that get to kind of lead the way for that and set the new standard," Boggs said. "I know coming in, my class, we wanted to make an impact right away and some of us didn't get to step on the field that first year, but we wanted to change the culture. And I think that we're now seeing all that hard work that we put into just caring about each other... I think in that first season that we had where we only won 15 games total, we could still fall back on, you know, we still support each other with everything we have. And now that we're winning games, we're still trying to fall back on that, like we care about each other so much that the wins are just a bonus."

There have been plenty of bonus wins this season for the Cavaliers, whose seven ACC series victories included a pair of ranked series wins over then-No. 3 Duke and then-No. 11 Clemson. UVA's success in the regular season has not resulted in any complacency, but has only given Hardin's Hoos confidence as they prepare for their first taste of the NCAA Tournament.

"There are 64 teams left that are practicing and playing this week and that's about 20% of Division I softball programs and that's really special. I think that's something that's been earned and it's a right that we have given ourselves," Hardin said. "To step back and have some perspective and acknowledge the work that's been done and acknowledge that we put ourselves here so we can walk into Knoxville with some confidence in what we've done"

Hardin and her coaching staff are embracing the challenge of finding the right balance between appreciating the moment and significance of making the NCAA Tournament while also remaining laser-focused on their objective of winning the Knoxville Regional.

"It's a pretty seamless transition. Being grateful for the work you've done and for the opportunity you've been given to be here and so we try to couple gratitude with competitiveness too," said Hardin. "We're happy, but we're not just happy to be here. We want to go out with a mission and we have another goal on the table: we want to be playing on Sunday. That's a goal we've talked about. This team has been pretty brave in putting their goals out there publicly to each other and to our fans and to the world to say: NCAA Tournament and regional was one major milestone that we wanted to accomplish this year. And so playing on Sunday is another one. You can take joy and enjoy those moments while you're preparing to compete. They're not just satisfied with the berth."

Boggs echoed her coach's sentiment. Virginia isn't hiding from the excitement of playing in the NCAA Tournament, but is rather using it as motivation. With victories over highly-ranked teams already under their belt, the Cavaliers have no fear as they enter a regional hosted by the tournament's No. 3 overall seed.

"It just brings so much excitement that you let that excitement fuel you. We thrive off of playing big teams and we've proven ourselves - confidence is so important in this game and confidence is dangerous," Boggs said. "We've proven to ourselves that we have the right to be confident in what we do, we have the groundwork, we can believe in ourselves. We've beaten teams in the top five in the country and going into it, we're excited because we've done it before and we're ready to do it again."