After losing to Virginia Tech 4-1 in the second round of the ACC softball tournament, Haleigh Dickey said she wasn’t sure if that game would be the season’s last.
The North Carolina softball team won the ACC’s regular season outright, but after the Tar Heels were snubbed from the NCAA tournament last year – after being runners-up for both ACC titles – she was hesitant to take the postseason for granted.
On Sunday, though, Dickey and her teammates breathed a sigh of relief. No. 22 UNC was selected as the second seed in the tournament’s Athens, Ga., regional. The Tar Heels will play their first game on Friday against Georgia Southern at 2:30 p.m.
“Last year we were told we were the number two seed and we’d finished second in the ACC,” coach Donna Papa said.
“We were second in everything, and we wound up not getting in. And the teams that were third and fourth in their conference, even in our conference, got in. I think there’s a little hesitation from some of the players because we were a shoo-in, and then we got shooed out,” Papa said.
Though the Tar Heels are happy to still be playing, they’re even happier with their tournament path, beginning in Georgia. Four of UNC’s starters—Logan Foulks, Lori Spingola, Kelli Wheeler and Dickey—hail from the Peach State.
“Of all the regions we could have been put in, I’m really excited about this one,” Papa said. “I feel like this one’s very doable.”
Even better, should both the Tar Heels and the Hokies make it out of their region, they would meet for a best-of-three series in the Super Regional.
But regardless of who the team’s playing, UNC believes an improved focus on the simple things will prevent lapses such as the one against Virginia Tech last week.
