OKLAHOMA CITY -- Laura Mealer's ninth-inning, walk-off single clinched a 5-4 Tennessee win over UCLA and launched the Lady Vols into the WCWS semifinals on Sunday, but not before a controversial, 7th-inning replay review delayed play for nearly 15 minutes earlier in the game.
"That was one of the most exciting, intense, emotional games I've ever been a part of in all my years of coaching," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said after the three-hour, 24-minute marathon. "I couldn't be more proud of our young women for hanging in there and not letting what happened in the 7th inning cost us to lose the game."
No. 7 Tennessee led 4-2 with two outs in the top of the 7th inning when Bruins junior Megan Grant launched a two-run blast that appeared to tie the contest 4-4. However, replay footage showed that Grant failed to touch home plate amid a team celebration on the end of her home run trot. Grant, a first-team All-American in 2025, subsequently stepped on the base and was initially ruled safe after on-deck batter Alexis Ramirez pulled her back to home plate.
Alerted to Grant's gaffe by the Tennessee dugout, the on-field officiating crew and game officials engaged in a lengthy replay review. After 13-plus minutes, umpire Cameron Ellison announced that Grant had missed the base and was later assisted toward home plate by a teammate, but determined that the incident was "not reviewable according to Appendix G" of the section of NCAA rule book related to reviewable plays, upholding Grant's home run and the 4-4 tie.
"I think everybody but four people saw the play at the plate," Weekly said. "We saw in the dugout that she had missed the plate and then we saw that her teammates had kind of pushed her back. By rule, that should have been nullified."
"It was a long one, that's it," UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said of the review. "I just told everyone to hang tight and kind of got clarity on a few things with what happened because I didn't see it at the end of the day.
"Bottom line, she hit the two-run home run and tied up the game. So I'll remember that forever."
Grant's game-tying blast and the review that followed delivered No. 9 UCLA's latest memorable WCWS moment, but it was Tennessee that managed to rebound in extra innings, securing a date against No. 6 Texas in one of Monday's national semifinals.
Lady Vols ace Karlyn Pickens, who allowed four runs with seven strikeouts and threw 148 pitches over 9.0 innings on Sunday, held the Bruins in check after Grant's 7th-inning shot, setting the stage for Tennessee's game-winning rally.
Taylor Pannell's lead-off double off the top of the left field wall -- which required another replay review -- got the Lady Vols' rolling in the bottom of the 9th inning. Four batters later, with the bases loaded, Mealer roped the sixth pitch she saw from UCLA's Taylor Tinsley into left field to drive home Pannell and extend Tennessee's WCWS stay.
"In that moment, it felt like 25 of us against the pitcher," Mealer said. "Karen even kept walking over to me and was like, 'The pressure is not on you in this moment.' So just staying simple and passing the bat was all that's going through my mind and I knew my team was right there with me in the box."
The Lady Vols return to face Texas on Monday (12 p.m. ET, ESPN), needing two wins against the Longhorns to earn Tennessee's third WCWS finals appearance in program history.