Tennessee softball has dealt with its first challenge of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

The Lady Vols defeated Dayton 3-0 in the Knoxville Regional.

3-seed Tennessee will now face Virginia on Saturday. The Flyers will face Miami (Ohio) in an elimination game. This is due to the Cavaliers’ win over the RedHawks earlier on Friday afternoon.

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If the Lady Vols defeat Virginia, they will advance to Sunday where they will be tasked with winning just one of two games to advance to consecutive Super Regionals. The regional is two-loss elimination all the way through.

Game one's win over Dayton came behind strong pitching by Karlyn Pickens. She tossed seven scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and striking out 12.

Destiny Rodriguez got the scoring started with a two-RBI knock to left in the second.

Sophia Nugent pushed across another in the fifth with a single.

First pitch for the match against the Cavaliers is set for 1 p.m. ET. However, poor weather is in the forecast so times and dates may be subject to change.

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