TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama softball team learned a hard lesson last year in the opening round of the Tuscaloosa Regional.

The Crimson Tide lost 4-2 to Tennessee Tech on its home field at the Alabama Softball Complex, then had to win twice a day for two days in a row to battle its way out of the loser's bracket and win the regional.

The third-ranked Crimson Tide hopes to take a different approach this year. Alabama is hosting Florida State, Jacksonville State and Tennessee-Chattanooga in the NCAA Tournament starting Thursday.

'It was very disappointing and obviously it wasn't what we were looking for,' senior outfielder/first baseman Dani Woods said. 'You always try to come out with the mentality that you want to take care of business early. Winning the first game is definitely a huge advantage for the rest of the weekend. It kind of sets the tone.

'I think we're going to go in with the same mentality this year, and hopefully it's going to work out for us.'

Alabama coach Patrick Murphy doesn't think his team overlooked Tennessee Tech. The Golden Eagles hit three home runs against UA in the opening game.

'We knew they were a good team and they had a bunch of home runs and we needed to keep it in the park,' Murphy said. 'We respected the heck out of them.'

So what happened? Junior third baseman Kelley Montalvo confesses that not everyone on the team took Tennessee Tech as seriously as they should have.

'I remember it,' Montalvo said. 'All the upperclassmen, for sure, remember it.

'We can't take any team lightly and I think that's what we did last year. It kind of hurt us. We just thought, we got a good regional, we got a good team, a good seed, it can't happen.'

UA players realize now that every team in the regional is good enough to win any game. They learned that lesson first-hand.

'I think we just kind of had an off day and things didn't go our way, and the result shows,' Woods said. 'Everybody here has either won their conference tournament or people think they're good enough to get a bid, so you can't take anybody lightly anymore.'

Montalvo is determined to make sure this year's first-round result is different when Alabama plays UTC, another team from Tennessee with a lot of home-run power.

'It's not going to happen this year because we're going to come out first,' she said. 'They tell you all the time it doesn't matter who it is, we want to take it to them.

'Anybody makes it this far, anybody can take it. They're a good hitting team, a scrappy team. They could always bite us in the butt. You never know.'

Murphy wants Alabama to take the path of least resistance by winning the first game. The Tide could seal up the regional title with three wins in three days if it doesn't fall into the loser's bracket.

'Stay in the winner's bracket, hopefully use three pitchers and everyone is fresh. That's the ideal,' he said.

Alabama's returning players are proud of winning their way out of the loser's bracket a year ago, but that doesn't mean they're anxious to repeat the experience.

'It was a testament to how hard the team wanted it,' Woods said. 'Don't want to do it again.'

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0224.