Tennessee leads off with Campbell in the Knoxville Regional of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, May 20.
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The game (6:30 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch Tennessee vs Campbell live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ will have exclusive coverage of every non-televised game at the 2022 NCAA Softball Tournament (around 60 games total). It also includes other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) for $6.99 per month (or $20.97 for a bundle of all three of ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu).
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Tennessee vs Campbell live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Tennessee vs Campbell Softball Preview
The Tennessee Lady Volunteers (39-16) come into the NCAA Tournament as the 11th seed and host to the Knoxville Regional.
Tennessee will face Campbell (37-17) to open regional play on Friday. The two teams will face Oregon State (33-19) or Ohio State (35-15) on Saturday, depending on Friday’s results in the double-elimination tournament. Surviving teams will play on Sunday for a spot in the Super Regionals.
Lady Vols head coach Karen Weekly expects it to be survival of the fittest this weekend in Knoxville.
“We have an extremely tough regional when you do it by average RPI,” Weekly said via The Knoxville News Sentinel’s Cora Hall. “I think it’s the second toughest in the country, and we’re only second by maybe a decimal point … you’ve got, even our four seed here, they’re in the 70s in RPI. There’s some regionals that have a three seed way higher [in RPI] than that. It’s going to be a real, real battle here.”
Part of that stems from having three schools from Power Five conferences in the field. Ohio State and Oregon State play tough schedules in the Big Ten and Pac-12 respectively as both conferences field multiple teams softball’s Big Dance.
Tennessee played a tough schedule in the regular season and did part of it without All-American pitcher Ashley Rogers. She pitched just 93 innings this season due to injury, but she looks to have a big tournament.
“I knew what I needed to do,” Rogers said via Hall. “Thankfully the staff has definitely helped me a lot with holding the reins back, just knowing what to do and just helping me through the process. It’s definitely been a period of growth for me as well as a player and a person.”
Campbell embraces the underdog role going into Knoxville after winning the Big South Conference title. The Camels haven’t won a conference title in 12 years.
“We know that in order to win, we have to fight for our lives,” Campbell player and Big South Tournament MVP Georgeanna Barefoot said via Campbell Athletics. “That’s just always how we’ve been, playing like an underdog. So we just have to always keep fighting through everything.”
Knoxville (Tenn.) Regional
Friday’s Games
- Game 1: Oregon State (33-19) vs. Ohio State (35-15), 4 p.m.
- Game 2: Campbell (37-17) vs. No. 11 seed Tennessee (39-16), 6:30 p.m.
Winner’s Bracket Loser’s Bracket Games on Saturday and Sunday
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Tennessee vs Campbell Softball 2022: Where to Watch