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Tennessee women's soccer coach Angela Kelly is well aware that it'll take a herculean effort for the Lady Vols to navigate through the treacherous first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C.

But considering how far Tennessee has come to get to this point, Kelly would probably even gladly square off with Pele and the New York Cosmos, if they showed up in Chapel Hill.

"The way the season has gone I'm just happy to get to go practice, period," said Kelly on Wednesday before the Lady Vols departed for Charlotte.

Tennessee opens NCAA play at 7:30 tonight against Atlantic 10 tournament champion Charlotte (17-3-1).

The winner advances to Sunday's second round, probably against top-seeded North Carolina, which is a prohibitive favorite to dispatch Western Carolina in the other first-round game at Fetzer Field.

The Lady Vols (10-10-2) earned an automatic bid by shocking the field at last week's SEC tournament, emerging as champions despite being seeded No. 6.

If UT gets past the 49ers, the Lady Vols' prize is a likely pairing with 18-time NCAA champion North Carolina (19-1-2).

Kelly, who played on four national championship teams at North Carolina (1991-94) and helped the Tar Heels compile a staggering 97-1-1 record, would welcome a Sunday match with her former school.

But first things first.

"The fact that we get to go to Chapel Hill is great, but we are certainly not overlooking UNC-Charlotte," Kelly said.

"They're on a 14-game winning streak and they're gonna battle us tooth-and-nail."

Heading into the SEC tournament, the Lady Vols' prospects for an eighth-consecutive trip to the NCAAs looked bleak. But Kelly challenged her team to put a disappointing regular season behind it and concentrate on the task at hand.

And Tennessee responded by bumping off Auburn, LSU and finally Georgia, 1-0, in the championship game.

"Our ability to not look back and to continue looking forward (was key)," Kelly said.

"I wanted the girls to take full advantage of the opportunity - it's postseason play and it's a clean slate for everybody."

Senior keeper Jaimel Johnson was named tournament MVP for the Lady Vols, who also placed freshman Chelsea Hatcher along with sophomores Julie Edwards and Tanya Emerson - all midfielders - on the all-tournament team.

"The whole team effort was there," Kelly said.

"I told them that's what we do at the University of Tennessee - we win. They took it and ran with it."

Even more impressive, the Lady Vols did it without the services of senior forward Kylee Rossi, who is done for the year after battling a hip injury the last month.

"The thing you're seeing now is nobody is waiting for anybody else to step up," Kelly said. "They realize it's their time now."

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