Karen Weekly on Taylor Pannell's account of handshake line, calls it 'outright lie'

(This story has been updated to include new information.)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Former Tennessee softball third baseman Taylor Pannell scored the game-tying run to send the game between the Lady Vols and Texas Tech to extra innings at the Women's College World Series on May 30.

Tennessee walked it off for a 2-1 victory with a home run in the ninth inning. After the game, Pannell claimed Tennessee coach Karen Weekly told her in the handshake line that she made a mistake in transferring to the Red Raiders.

"We were walking through the line just saying 'good game,' and she said that I made a mistake instead of saying 'good game,' which is kind of crazy," Pannell said in the postgame news conference. "Like celebrate with your team. I just think it's funny she's still thinking about it. It's old news. Whatever."

Tennessee went first in the postgame news conference, and when Weekly was asked what she said to Pannell, she said "Good game, like I say to every player. Good game."

When told that Pannell claimed Weekly said that she made a mistake, Weekly told Knox News that it was "an outright lie."

"If you rewatch at the tape of the handshake line, you’re going to see me go just as fast by her as anybody else," Weekly said. "I didn’t even know where she was in the handshake line . . . that’s an outright lie. I said 'good game' like I said to every other player."

"I went through the handshake line, nothing. It happened behind me," Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said in the postgame news conference. "So I don't know exactly what happened."

Pannell had a breakout season with the Lady Vols as redshirt sophomore. She was named to the NFCA All-America second team after leading Tennessee in every offensive category except home runs. She hit .398 with 56 runs, 65 RBIs, 16 home runs, 13 doubles and 34 walks.

Pannell announced she was transferring to Texas Tech on June 12 — the same day she entered the portal — after Tennessee's season ended in the WCWS semifinals.

The next day, Weekly spoke out against tampering in a social media post.

"I think we can all agree on 2 things: 1) women making money in sports is awesome and long overdue; 2) contacting players (directly or indirectly) before their season ends and signing them to NIL deals before they enter the portal is wrong. Money isn’t the issue - tampering is!" Weekly wrote in the post.

Pannell has been the most significant departure for Tennessee in the transfer portal era.

Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe