The Lady Vols will lean heavily next season on Tamari Key, left, Kaiya Wynn and Sara Puckett.

-- Photo By Jerry Denham |The Ledger

Reaching the Sweet 16 used to be a birthright for the Tennessee women’s basketball program. It was just another stop on the road to the bigger prize. But after six years away, the Lady Vols can appreciate how much it took to get back while also wondering what might have been if the team had ever been at full strength.

Considering the significant injuries they endured, the Lady Vols maximized just about all they could get from this season.

The ending came in a 76-64 loss to No. 1 seed Louisville in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament’s Wichita Regional.

The fourth-seeded Lady Vols (25-9) staged a trademark rally to push Louisville until the very end, but couldn’t overcome turnovers and missed shots to produce the upset.

“There is a great sense of pride,’’ UT guard Jordan Walker says. “Only 15 other teams get to be here and get to have this opportunity.

“So for us to be one after all we have been through this season says a lot about us and who we are and what we do on the court. There is still a sense of pride.”

Tennessee played the final eight games without Jordan Horston, the team’s leading scorer, rebounder and best perimeter defender, after Horston dislocated and fractured her elbow.

The Lady Vols weathered the early absence of senior guard Rae Burell after she went down with a knee injury in the season-opener and missed 12 games.

Graduate senior post Keyen Green was lost for the season after suffering a career-ending knee injury in late January.

Tennessee played the entire season without sophomore guard/forward Marta Suarez, who suffered an injury in the preseason.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of it and you’ve got something you’re still playing for, it’s hard to reflect on what this team has been able to accomplish,’’ Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper explains. “Not just what they’ve done but how they’ve done it.

“I’m so proud of what they’ve done and what it’s looked like, how they’ve acted. Their attitude and love for each other has been really special. It’s been a lot of fun to coach.”

The future appears bright for the Lady Vols to remain as an SEC title contender and return to national prominence on the bigger stage.

They will likely lose Burrell to the WNBA Draft, but have reinforcements coming. They received some positive news from the transfer portal last week when Rickea Jackson announced she was coming to Tennessee.

The 6-foot-2 forward was the SEC’s leading scorer this season at Mississippi State, averaging 20.3 points in 15 games, when she announced in January she was transferring.

Horston, Tamari Key and Walker return, along with the young nucleus of Sara Puckett, Brooklyn Miles, Karoline Striplin and Tess Darby.

Puckett came through in the second round of the NCAA tournament with the go-ahead three-pointer in the final seconds of a thriller against Belmont.

The Lady Vols have signed Justine Pissott, a 6-foot-2 wing ranked No. 11 in the class of 2022 by ESPN, and will add Jasmine Powell, a transfer from Minnesota.

Tennessee will never be considered the cuddly underdog because of the program’s prestigious history. The Lady Vols remain a team that others consider a signature victory.

Under Harper, they are getting more accustomed to that role again.

“They had to learn how to be a Top 5 program. They had to learn what it was like to have a target on their back and be able to bounce back from that and recover from that,” Harper continues. “Toughness is not just the physical, more importantly it’s the mental and the emotional toughness that this group had. It’s a long season.”

Burrell scored a season-high 22 points and grabbed six rebounds in what is expected to be her final college game. She spurred the team’s rally from a 15-point deficit, hitting several big shots late in the game to give the Lady Vols a chance.

“It’s meant so much, I get to be a Lady Vol for life, and that means a lot to me. I’ve been here for four years, and it’s been a great ride,” Burrell says. “I’m just very grateful for my team and the people that have helped me along the way.”

Despite a changeover in coaches following her freshman season, Burrell never considered transferring from Tennessee.

“I made a commitment and I was going to stick to it and stay loyal to the program. When Kellie came in, she came in, a national champion, so why wouldn’t I want to stay?” Burrell says. “She showed me that she knows what she’s talking about, and I really wanted to follow her lead.”

The bar remains high for Harper. She says she believes the Lady Vols can ascend back to the mountaintop of the women’s game in the near future. She knows what it requires.

“I came to Tennessee as a player to win championships, and I came as a coach to win championships. That’s why our players choose to be Lady Vols. That’s the expectation,” notes Harper, who won three titles as a player. “You can look at it as pressure or you can look at it as that’s just the standard. For us, I think we want to be the best we can possibly be.”

The Lady Vols aren’t happy losing in the Sweet 16. But the resilience they displayed against Louisville was emblematic of the entire season and something the program can build upon for the future.

“I’m really proud of our team. They don’t have any quit in them. They’re going to fight. Cut it to 2, gave ourselves a chance there in the fourth quarter,” Harper says. “I love them for that, love them for their competitiveness and how they have represented the Lady Vols.”