Softball's Postseason Reminiscent of Every Other USF Sport...and Not in a Good Way

USF had a bizarre final few games end to the regular season, which probably had a lot to do with their premature flight home from the conference tournament in Louisville. After a forfeit of the regular season finale, the ladies were sent back to Tampa after just one game, losing to Louisville, 2-0. Maybe the Ericksen suspension was more impactful than we thought. And maybe the Big East knew we weren't going to advance past round 1 and that's why they cut the suspension in half.

You can't help but to feel like we've felt this way before. In recent memory, we've had more than our fair share of teams who started well, looked promising, maybe made the postseason, and disappointed us. Just last basketball season, our men's team had their first 20-win season in years and were led by Dominique Jones to a respectable showing in the Big East tournament. The NCAA selection committee snubbed the Bulls, which looked like a recipe for a great run in the NIT. In the first game of the tournament, however, they dropped their late lead to get eliminated by NC State and end the season.

In football, the Bulls have started 5-0 in 5 of the last 6 years and have given USF fans plenty to cheer about, then fizzled out in the middle of the season, extinguishing all hope of a conferencr championship or perhaps more. This most notably occurred in 2007 when the Bulls got off to an outstanding start, thrashing UCF among their other opponents and climbed up the rankings ladder to #2 in the polls. The season's start make the team seem like a lock to win out the conference and maybe even go to the National Championship. The Bulls ended up going 3-4 in conference play and getting pounded by Oregon in the Sun Bowl. They tumbled from the rankings and ended the season 9-4 without a vote in the AP poll.

What about this past year's men's soccer squad? After closing the preseason with an upset of #1 Akron and returning an outstanding team including one of the nation's best goalkeepers, the Bulls looked like they were going to build on last season's relative success. The season didn't turn out that smoothly, though, as USF looked sloppy defensively all year and failed to make a run in the Big East tournament. The season officially ended in Orlando when USF lost to UCF in round 1 of the NCAA tournament.

Now the softball ladies had a great year, no one will deny that. But you can't help but feel like they came up a bit short. Coach Ericksen said a couple weeks ago that 35 wins would be a good mark to reach for consideration by the NCAA tournament selection committee. Unfortunately, USF sits now at 33 victories and won't be playing until next year unless the committee thinks their body of work was sufficient to get a bid.

The ladies did a great job this season, but after falling from first place in the league to a first-round elimination in two weeks, that 33 win season seems bittersweet.