Two years ago, the Georgia softball team won 28 games and failed to qualify for the eight-team Southeastern Conference tournament.
Last year, the Bulldogs took a confident step forward, winning 12 of their last 14 games and falling one victory short of the program's single-season best.
This season, No. 25 Georgia has exploded onto the national scene. The Bulldogs have broken seven nine records, 13 individual records and are closing in on seven more team marks.
The Bulldogs' transformation from a team that won 33 games in 2001 to a squad that has posted a program-record 53 games this season would seem amazing.
But second-year Georgia coach Lu Harris-Champer doesn't see it that way.
"I wouldn't say I am surprised because the team has been working really hard to achieve new heights and to reach their team and individual goals," Harris-Champer said. "Hopefully the most surprising thing about this season is yet to be discovered."
Georgia will set out to create some surprises Thursday when it plays Auburn at 6 p.m. in the first round of the SEC tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs (53-13) will be looking for their first tournament win (0-4) in their third trip to the tournament, and first under Harris-Champer.
"We all know we can win, it is just a matter of trusting ourselves when we get there," Georgia's Nicole Barber said. "If everybody does that, there is no doubt in my mind we can SECs and regionals."
Barber has been one of the driving forces behind the Bulldogs' quest for their first NCAA tournament bid. The sophomore center fielder set an NCAA record earlier this season by stealing 73 consecutive bases over the last two seasons. She also has broken or has had a hand in breaking 10 individual team records this year.
The addition of 10 newcomers, three of whom are starting position players and three more who are pitchers, has also paid huge dividends.
But individual marks aren't what drive the Bulldogs. Instead, Barber and her teammates said chemistry has been the reason for the team's success.
"The unity on this team is the most surprising thing to me," Barber said. "I have never been on a team where the players trust each other so much.
"We have each others' backs all of the time, and it is more a deep respect for each other. We have gone through some rough stuff, and I think it has only made us stronger."
Barber said the Bulldogs drew strength from last season when they struggled through injuries and limited numbers (Georgia finished the season with 11 players after several players left the team) to win 12 of their last 14 games and just miss qualifying for the SEC tournament.
"One of the hardest things I have learned coming here is to instill a certain discipline and belief in a team in what they're striving for and that they can achieve anything," Harris-Champer said. "I don't think you do it overnight. By having success and more success they start to believe and buy in it."
The momentum from 2001 carried over to individual workouts and team workouts in the fall, and Harris-Champer said the team's unity grew stronger on its first three trips of the 2002 season.
Georgia won its first 24 games, which helped it earn its first national ranking. It also has set a school-record for SEC wins in its second-place finish in the Eastern Division.
Harris-Champer said everyone knew the Bulldogs had the potential last season and that is was just a matter of putting it together and for each player to be on the same page.
"I think confidence has been a huge factor in our success this year," junior shortstop Michelle Tyree said. "We always say that internal confidence equals external success. Confidence and belief have gotten us this far. If we didn't believe we could get to the tournament, we wouldn't have."
Tyree and junior catcher Julie Raiskums are the only remaining players from the 2000 team that went 28-33 under Alleen Hawkins.
Since then, Tyree said the Bulldogs have been learning how to trust each other and learning how to win under Harris-Champer, who was hired in June of 2000 after she guided Southern Mississippi to back-to-back trips to the NCAA College World Series.
She said the key for the Bulldogs this season is that every player on the team believes everyone on the team can get the job done.
Third baseman Kristen Bell, the team's lone senior, said that belief has blossomed from last season.
"I think when everything is new everything is kind of on edge and there may be doubts, but I think we all overcame that last year," Bell said. "The discipline that coach has given us and the work ethic that all of us have, we feel we have worked and we deserve to be up there because we have put in that much time.
"All we have left to do is to play and to believe in ourselves and trust in our teammates."
SEC Softball Tournament
At Jim Frost Stadium, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Thursday's Games
Game 1 -- No. 3 Alabama (44-17, 22-8 SEC) vs. No. 6 Arkansas (38-24-1, 14-16), Noon
Game 2 -- No. 2 South Carolina (41-16, 20-10) vs. No. 7 Mississippi State 34-27, 13-16), 2 p.m.
Game 3 -- No. 4 Georgia (53-13, 18-12) vs. No. 5 Auburn (37-23, 15-15), 6 p.m.
Game 4 -- No. 1 LSU (49-9, 25-4) vs. No. 8 Florida (32-33, 12-18), 8 p.m.
Friday's Games
Game 5 -- Loser Game No. 1 vs. Loser Game No. 2, Noon
Game 6 -- Loser Game No. 3 vs. Loser Game No. 4, 2 p.m.
Game 7 -- Winner Game No. 1 vs. Winner Game No. 2, 6 p.m.
Game 8 -- Winner Game No. 3 vs. Winner Game No. 4, 8 p.m.
