College News: Tennessee Picks Up Arizona Transfer Ivy Davis

For the Tennessee Vols, it was a case of losing one member of the program and gaining another this week.

Extra Inning Softball broke the story Monday night of the resignation of long-time pitching coach Marty McDaniel and today the SEC school announced that Ivy Davis from Arizona would be joining the team.

We covered Ivy for several years going back to when she played for Tony Rico’s Firecracker program and graduated as a Top 50 player in the Class of 2017 (ranked #31 by Brentt Eads)

A student of the martial art Muay Thai, Ivy combined power and speed back in her pre-college days when she ran in the 2.6-2.7 second range home-to-first from the left side and could smash 250-foot home runs from the right side.

She was offered by several Pac-12 and SEC schools before committing to Arizona as a freshman in high school and now will have a taste of both conferences.

Coach Rico said back in 2017, “Ivy had the physical tools from a young age and kept adding tools to her skill set before she calmed her game down and became proficient at processing what she needs to do to make game decisions.”

Ivy’s father, Eric, was her long-time club coach prior to the Firecrackers stint as she played for her dad from ages 6U to 14U.

Ivy played at Huntington Beach (California) High and could even pitch effectively, beating the then-No. 1 ranked team in the country, Los Alamitos, and throwing a perfect game–all in the same week!

The Vols did have one player from this year’s team transfer back to California as Jenna Holcomb is now at San Diego State.

Here are excerpts from the release issued today by UT...

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University of Tennessee softball co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly announced this week that senior transfer Ivy Davis has signed an SEC Grant-in-Aid and Institutional Financial Aid Agreement to join the Lady Vol softball program.

Davis spent the previous three seasons at perennial powerhouse Arizonaand started 21 of 25 games as the Wildcats’ first baseman in 2020.

The Huntington Beach, Calif., native finished with .305 batting average in the abbreviated season, coming off one of the best offensive showings in her collegiate career. Davis recorded 13 RBI, three homers and finished with a .508 slugging percentage.

“We are thrilled to have Ivy Davis joining the Lady Vols,” said co-head coach Karen Weekly. “She is a natural middle infielder and will bring us much needed experience there. Playing at Arizona and for OC Batbusters in travel ball, she understands what it takes to compete at a championship level.”

Through her three-year stint in Tucson, Ariz., Davis made 87 appearances and 61 starts. She was the quintessential utility player, starting seven different positions in her time with UA.

Co-head coach Ralph Weekly added, “I was impressed by her performance against us in February of this year. She had two hits and played flawless defense.”

Davis will be one of three players from California on the Lady Vols roster next season.