KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A new era for Tennessee softball begins Friday with the start of the 2022 season under head coach Karen Weekly. The 16th-ranked Lady Vols head to Miami to open the campaign at the Felsberg Invitational, a three-day, four-team tournament hosted by Florida International.
 
UT opens the weekend with a doubleheader Friday morning, taking on UNC Greensboro at 10 a.m. before facing off with Maryland at 12:30 p.m. The Lady Vols will battle the hosts on Saturday, with first pitch against FIU set for 12:30 p.m. From there, the tournament goes into a seeded double elimination bracket format with Tennessee guaranteed one game each on Saturday and Sunday.
 
A full tournament schedule for the 2022 Felsberg Invitational can be viewed at this link (PDF).

FOLLOW LIVE: FIU will provide live stats for each game throughout the tournament via SIDEARM Stats. Additionally, games featuring the Panthers will be streamed online for free at CUSA.tv.
 
Entering his 10th season calling Tennessee softball games, voice of the Lady Vols’ softball team Brian Rice will return to the online airwaves with an audio broadcast for all five of Tennessee’s games this weekend. Links to each audio broadcast can be found on the Tennessee softball schedule page and will be shared on @Vol_Softball social media accounts throughout the weekend.
 
A NEW ERA: The 2022 campaign will mark a new era for Tennessee softball featuring a revamped coaching staff. Karen Weekly takes charge of the program as head coach after serving as co-head coach alongside her husband Ralph Weekly for the past 20 seasons. Ralph announced his retirement from coaching in June of 2021 and currently serves the program as a special advisor.
 
THE COACHING STAFF: With two open positions on her staff, Weekly hired Chris Malveaux as an assistant coach and added Kate Malveaux as a volunteer assistant last summer. Chris spent the past three seasons at Missouri and guided one of the nation’s top offenses in Columbia, as the Tigers finished the 2021 season ranked top-20 in the country and top-3 in the SEC in numerous statistical categories.
 
Kate Malveaux, formerly Kate Singler, joined the Lady Vol staff after spending two seasons at Missouri as the director of operations. A former standout catcher/designated player at Bradley, she was named All-Missouri Valley Conference her senior season in 2011.
 
LVFL Megan Rhodes Smith (2005-08) returns for her second season as Tennessee’s pitching coach. Last spring, she guided her staff to a 1.80 ERA, 18 shutouts and a 3.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio, all ranking top-3 in the SEC and top-16 in the country.
 
LADY VOLS IN THE POLLS: Tennessee will begin the campaign as top-25 program in four major softball polls. The Lady Vols are ranked as high as No. 16 in the country by ESPN.com/USA Softball, while checking in at No. 18, No. 22 and No. 23 in the D1Softball, USA Today/NFCA and Softball America national rankings, respectively.
 
In a vote of the league’s head coaches, the Lady Vols were tabbed to finish fourth in the SEC Preseason Poll.
 
PRESEASON HONORS: Tennessee players have garnered plenty of preseason recognition from numerous softball outlets over the past month. Most notably, Kiki Milloy and Ashley Rogers were named Preseason All-Americans by D1Softball and were both mentioned on USA Softball’s Top 50 Watch List for Collegiate National Player of the Year. The duo also picked up Preseason All-SEC accolades from the league’s head coaches earlier this week.
 
Three Lady Vols were featured on Extra Inning Softball’s “Extra Elite 100” college player rankings: No. 17 Ashley Rogers, No. 31 Kiki Milloy and No. 59 Amanda Ayala. Softball America also included three Tennessee players on its preseason top 100: No. 15 Ashley Rogers, No. 67 Kiki Milloy and No. 68 Erin Edmoundson.
 
SCOUTING THE FIELD: The Felsberg Invitational field includes Tennessee, FIU, Maryland and UNC Greensboro. The Panthers are under new leadership with former Arkansas head coach and Maryland assistant Mike Larabee entering his first season in Miami. Mark Montgomery is in his third season leading the Terrapins, while Janelle Breneman begins her 10th year guiding the Spartans who won the SoCon title and earned an NCAA Tournament berth a year ago.
 
FIU

• 2021 Record: 14-26 (6-13 C-USA)
• 2021 Conference Finish: 5th East
• Series Record: UT leads, 3-0
• Last Meeting: Feb. 21, 2020 (W, 9-1)
• Key Player/Stat: Senior infielder Venessa Gallegos led the Panthers with a .352 average and 33 RBIs in 2021

Maryland

• 2021 Record: 19-25 (19-25 Big Ten)
• 2021 Conference Finish: 10th
• Series Record: UT leads, 3-1
• Last Meeting: March 17, 2018 (W, 10-0)
• Key Player/Stat: Jaeda McFarland, the 2021 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, led the Terrapins with 46 hits, 19 RBIs, four triples and 13 steals last spring

UNC Greensboro

• 2021 Record: 34-17 (14-4 SoCon)
• 2021 Conference Finish: 1st (Regular Season/Tournament Champions)
• Series Record: UT leads, 4-0
• Last Meeting: Feb. 12, 2017 (W, 13-2)
• Key Player/Stat: The Spartans were voted preseason favorites in the SoCon and had four players named preseason all-conference, headlined by Preseason Pitcher of the Year Morgan Scott. Scott went 20-10 last year and racked up 210 strikeouts as a sophomore in 2021.

UP NEXT: The Lady Vols will return to the Sunshine State next weekend for the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational sponsored by ESPN. Tennessee will square off with three nationally ranked teams in No. 4 Florida State, No. 7 Washington and No. 15 Clemson in addition to facing a pair of teams receiving votes in most major polls in UCF and Notre Dame. All five games in Clearwater will be carried by the ESPN family of networks.

-UT Athletics