Tennessee orange played a role in Team USA securing a spot in the World Cup in 2027 with the pitching of Karlyn Pickens and hitting of Aubrey Leach.

The United States played this week in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s Softball World Cup in Oklahoma City at Devon Park, the same site as the Women’s College World Series, for a berth in the World Cup. Team USA went 6-0 during the event, which was held Sept. 12-16.

Pickens pitched eight innings in two appearances with one win, 14 strikeouts and two walks.

The 7-0 playoff win Wednesday over China – Team USA also defeated China in group play to reach the playoffs in Devon Park – clinched a berth for the women’s national team, which also defeated Mexico, Brazil, the Netherland and New Zealand without allowing a run. Team USA runners crossed home plate 59 times.

Leach started three games and played in all six while hitting .545 in 11 at-bats with six hits, one double, one homer, two RBIs, five runs scored and a stolen base.

The WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2027 will be held April 5-11, 2027, at Kayo Stadium in Redcliffe, Australia.

Leach, who goes by Aubrey Leach-Gartner on Tennessee’s roster, will be in Knoxville this fall as an assistant coach for the Lady Vols. Pickens, who graduated last May, is listed as a student assistant for the 2027 season.

Aubrey Leach, center, and Janae Jefferson, left, are all smiles in Oklahoma City. Alyssa Brito is in the background.
(USA Softball)

SOCCER

The UTs will meet on the pitch tonight, Sept. 18, when No. 4/8 Tennessee (6-0-1, 1-0) and No. 20 Texas (5-2-1, 0-1)  play in Austin. Game time is set for 8 p.m. Eastern with a livestream on SECN+.

The Lady Vols opened SEC play last week with a road win against LSU, while Texas lost its conference opener against Arkansas in Fayetteville and dropped out of one of the two women’s soccer polls.

In the win over the Tigers, Taylor Cheatham became the first Lady Vol with multiple game-winning goals in 2026. The forward found the net in the 55th minute with a header on well-placed corner kick from Dakota Brown. Shae O’Rourke, who missed nearly all of the 2025 season with an ACL injury, scored her second goal of the season in 2026 at LSU.

“We’ve had the group together for the most part since January, so we’ve got a really good feel of where they are,” coach Joe Kirt said this week on the Mike Keith Show. “They’ve done a tremendous job of growing through this process. We know they’re young, but they’re really taking information and applying it, both from us and from games they’ve played in.”

“It’s a tough place to play at Texas,” Kirt said. “They’ve done a really good job on the nonconference side of things, and they can punish you in transition and are good on set plays. They’re well coached, organized and talented, so it’s another tough one on the road. But we’ve got a lot of confidence in our team right now. They’ve proven they can do it on the road, so no reason we can’t do it again.”

VOLLEYBALL

The Lady Vols bounced back from a loss to No. 2 Pitt with back-to-back three-set sweeps over Coastal Carolina last Saturday in Knoxville and at Queens in Charlotte, North Carolina, last Tuesday.

No. 16 Tennessee will play two games in University Park, Pennsylvania, this weekend, Sept. 19-20, against USF on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a livestream on B1G+ and against No. 9 Penn State on Sunday at 2 p.m. with the broadcast on the Big Ten Network to wrap up non-conference matches.

The Lady Vols will start SEC play against No. 7 Texas in Knoxville on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. with the broadcast on the SEC Network.

Jolene Oddo, a freshman middle blocker for the Lady Vols earned back-to-back SEC honors as Co-Freshman of the Week for her offensive performance against Coastal Carolina and Freshman of the Week for her efforts in a pair of wins over Illinois and Indiana.

Oddo, who is from Clayton, North Carolina, leads the Lady Vols in blocks with 21 and is fourth on the team with 37 kills.

“She continues to get better every week,” coach Eve Rackham Watt said after the Coastal Carolina match. “She’s so good behind the setter, and I think it needs to be more a part of our offense. I was really happy with the way that she managed some of this. She was in some tough situations, and she managed them well.

“When she got her opportunities to kill the ball, she did. As a freshman, she continues to learn and get better and every week I feel like she’s taken another step forward.”

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Maria M. Cornelius began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition was released June 16, 2026. A third book, “The Legacy of Pat Summitt” will be released Nov. 17, 2026.