The 14th-ranked Georgia softball team hopes to avoid hearing Rocky Top this weekend as the players travel to Knoxville for a three-game series against the 12th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.

This weekend’s SEC match-up is the first of three rivalry series the Bulldogs will play, with Georgia Tech and Florida looming on next week’s schedule. But head coach Lu Harris-Champer doesn’t mind. In fact, she encourages great games.

“It will be fun,” Harris-Champer said. “You want to play the best competition when you get the opportunity to play. It makes the game more exciting.”

Georgia enters this weekend with a 16-game winning streak, including clean sweeps in its last two series against SEC foes Ole Miss and Arkansas. In five games Georgia outscored the Rebels and Razorbacks 27-5.

Centerfielder Taylor Schlopy, who is batting .321 with two home runs and 21 RBI, believes some of the success can be attributed to each player contributing to the team.

“Our team chemistry is great,” Schlopy said. “We’re just a big family. We love each other and we’re always around each other even if we’re not at practice or games. I think that is what makes our team so strong.”

Tennessee is ranked No. 12 by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, but the Volunteers ranking does not worry Schlopy.

“It’s exciting for the competition,” Schlopy said. “We just want to play our game and show how hard we’ve been working.

It doesn’t really matter who we play. We just come out and do what we know how to do.”

There is no love lost between Georgia and Tennessee, as a win in the rivalry would help boost bragging rights. Junior Kristin Schnake also notes the conference implications that are at stake.

“A win against Tennessee would mean a lot in the SEC standings, but I want to come out and win every weekend,” Schnake said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Tennessee or Florida.”

Georgia is in second place in the SEC East standings with an 8-3 conference record. Tennessee is attempting to make up ground against the Bulldogs as they try to improve their 7-6 conference mark.

The Vols swept Georgia in a three-game series last season in Athens. Georgia holds the overall series record 23-17.