Oklahoma City-Oklahoma recovered from losing to UCLA in the Women’s College World Series semi-finals on Monday and dominated the Bruins in a game that started 30 minutes after the first match ended.
Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said the turnaround shouldn’t be that fast.
The Suners handled it well, but Gasso still called it a player safety issue. She likes the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee adding a day between the semi-finals and the final, one of the few popular changes made before the season. But she will give up more time between semi-final matches.
“The last time I played the doubleheader was in March, and I played the doubleheader 30 minutes later in the final four. That is, I played two games with a 30-minute break and who participated in the national championship. I will do it. ” “I didn’t like it.”
Due to a habit of last year’s schedule, the NCAA moved the second semi-final game the next day because the rain delay delayed the start time of the first semi-final game. Gasso believes that this kind of arrangement should be permanent.
Texas took full advantage of the new format and defeated Oklahoma twice on Monday night to qualify for the Top 3 Championship Series. But even Longhorns director Mike White doesn’t know if some of them are ideal.
“Winning the first match was a big deal for us, but the inability to go back and reorganize can hurt some teams,” White said Tuesday. “You play for it all year round, so maybe it’s good to eliminate the doubleheader altogether.”
The coach praised other changes made by the Commission prior to this season. In the past, the team that won on the first day of Thursday had to play again on Friday. This time, the winner on Thursday didn’t play again until Saturday.
“I know the commission is moving their tails,” said Kenny Gajewski, director of Oklahoma State University. “We’ve changed this format. It’s great. That’s to reward the winning team. That’s what we should do.”
Under the old schedule, the team that lost on the first day of Thursday had to face the elimination game in the early Saturday session and, if they won, play the second game in the late Saturday session. No team played twice on the same day until the semi-finals this year.
Last year, Oklahoma State University played against Florida State University in a match late Saturday, but didn’t finish until 2:20 am local time after a delay in the start due to rain. Schedules now have the flexibility to explain these types of problems.
Coaches say the extension from up to 7 days to up to 9 days led to a better tournament.
UCLA coach Kelly Inouye Perez said, “I am grateful that I was able to speak up and do my best.” “People are too hard to get here just because you’re exhausted and can’t get a (poor) finish.”
