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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

May 30, 2015

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Auburn 4 - Tennessee 2

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Ralph Weekly, student-athlete Annie Aldrete, student-athlete Tory Lewis, student-athlete Cheyanne Tarango. Coach.

COACH R. WEEKLY: I'd like to thank the NCAA, the ASA, national committee and the city of Oklahoma City for hosting us. It's been a great few days. And congratulate Auburn. We're very proud of our team. About mid-season we challenged our team, what is going to be your legacy? What legacy are you going to leave at Tennessee? We've been a team -- in fact we're team No. 20 at Tennessee. We've been a softball program for 20 years. And seven of those have ended in Oklahoma City. There's not very many programs that can say that. They left the legacy of being one of those teams, and I'm very proud of them. I'm very proud of every player on our team, especially these three young ladies up here. But obviously we would have liked to finish. But what I told them inside, we've got three 3s and two 2s and nobody remembers that either. The only thing people remember is who was there and who won it. So we're proud.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Annie, for you, just how frustrating were these last few weeks for you even though you didn't get the result you wanted today, just get a couple of hits, is that momentum for next season?
ANNIE ALDRETE: Yeah, I think it's momentum. I'm not really concerned with myself. I'm just proud of my team we made it this far. I don't care if I went 0 for 20 or 20 for 20. I'm just glad we could make it here. And I'm proud of my team for everybody stepping up the whole year.

Q. Tory, now that it's over, what does it feel like for you, just you've been here three times now and kind of sum it up with this particular trip and what your feelings are right now?
TORY LEWIS: Like Annie (Aldrete) said, I'm just proud of my team and my teammates. We did something that people didn't think we were going to do. So, I mean, I am happy I got to finish my last season here. I got to finish three out of my four seasons at the World Series. What more could you ask? A lot of people don't get to come. There's so many teams that have only been here one or two times. And I got to come three times.

Q. Was this any different that you weren't really supposed to be here, a lot of people thought that during the season anyway?
TORY LEWIS: I think it was -- it felt a little more special because people doubted us. The other two times people expected us to come here. This year the whole year was full of doubt. So we proved a lot of people wrong. We got here, played two games. We came out strong. We came out hot. I'm proud of my team.

Q. Cheyanne, the first batter you faced got a hit but after that you rebounded really well. What was your mindset and how did you brush off that first at-bat?
CHEYANNE TARANGO: I just went out there trying to throw strikes and let my pitches do what they're supposed to do and just give my team a chance to come back and win the game.

Q. Coach, if you can, when did the team make a change that you saw in your eyes that they were destined to finish the season strong?
COACH R. WEEKLY: It started right after the first SEC weekend, when we lost two out of three to South Carolina, who is a good team in our league. But we challenged our players really strongly at that point. And they responded and continued to respond. And I'd like to add something to the question that you just asked Cheyanne (Tarango). Cheyanne was injured the day before our season started, and she missed, what, six weeks, something, close to six weeks. And we had a conversation near, right around that time when she was scheduled to come back, whether she should redshirt or not. And Karen (Weekly) and I strongly encouraged her to redshirt. We told her there will be some good times ahead and there's just as good a chance as this team to go to the World Series as any other. And she chose to stay with the team and she's been such an important part of the team. Because she could have applied for a redshirt. But I'll always be appreciative of that.

Q. Could you follow up on just her performance today, both the clutch pinch hit and pitching?
COACH R. WEEKLY: We know it's there. And she's helped us so many times. It goes back to the Alabama series two years ago, when she came in with the bases loaded and put them down one, two, three. But she's pitched some quality games. I mean, hitting was what got us to the playoffs. But pitching has got us through the playoffs. And Cheyanne (Tarango)'s been a big part of that.

Q. The big inning today, it eluded you all. You had chances, several chances. Auburn did get the big inning, just kind of how did you see the way that played out?
COACH R. WEEKLY: Coach (Clint) Myers and I were talking about that. You know, when you've got two good teams, luck figures into the thing. And he was talking about the slow grounder that went down the third baseline that nobody, Derek Jeter couldn't have got that one. And then the fly ball that the wind held up and, yes, maybe we could have made that play. But we didn't. But we ran ourselves out of the game. I think everybody would agree with that. And that's not negative toward anybody. When you hit a line drive like that, usually everybody is on the move any how. So we had the bases loaded twice and got doubled off. But that happens when you play aggressive. And we challenged our kids to play aggressive. There was nothing dumb about it. We just ran ourselves out of it.

Q. Cheyanne and Tory, what do you think is the outlook for this team next season? And how do you feel about the state that you're leaving the program in?
CHEYANNE TARANGO: Honestly, I think this team is a great team. It will improve with more games, especially with new players coming in. I know that they're going to play hard and attack pitches, and like I said go off of what we did this year. So I think they'll start off great and keep doing better.

TORY LEWIS: I agree completely. The team we have right now, they grew tremendously throughout the season. So just imagine that next year, like they, the experience that all our freshmen got is just going to help them so much more next year and then help the people coming in, when we have a lot of people coming in. So I think it's going to be amazing next year.

COACH R. WEEKLY: We're returning eight of nine hitters in the batting order. And we've got 12 recruits coming in off an incoming class that's rated No. 2 in the country. So I think the sky's the limit, but they're going to have to work hard.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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