Oklahoma, Florida and Oregon may yet be the teams we remember this season. But in handing each of the nation's top three teams their first loss, Boston University, Mississippi and Louisiana-Lafayette are the teams to remember this weekend.
Teams ranked in the top 10 went 45-1 during the season's opening week. Things were a bit different this past weekend, most evident in Boston University's 4-3 win over No. 1 Oklahoma on Saturday, No. 18 Mississippi's 1-0 win over No. 3 Oregon that night and No. 19 Louisiana-Lafayette's 4-3 walk-off win against No. 2 Florida in Sunday's finale of a three-game series.
The mayhem marks the first time since 2010 that the top three teams in the USA Softball/ESPN.com Top 25 after the opening week all lost the next week. But let's not get carried away with the sky falling on the Sooners, Gators and Ducks, who split the poll's first-place votes a week ago. The reason is found in the common bond between the following teams: UNLV in 2008, UC Riverside in 2010, Georgia State in 2012 and Cal Poly in 2017.
Give up? Each of those teams beat the eventual national champion in nonconference play. And there are plenty more like them over the years.
What you thought you knew about the Sooners, Gators and Ducks? You still know it.
Like many people throughout the country, Oklahoma's roster was hit by the flu last week. The Sooners lost with familiar faces on the field, but it still was a wearying week. Florida lost in 11 innings but still won the series in Louisiana. And it's just a guess, but Oregon will take its chances in any game this season in which ace Megan Kleist strikes out 16 and allows three hits, as she did in the nine-inning loss against Mississippi's now-familiar giant killer Kaitlin Lee.
It's the other side of the scoreboard that should make us linger in the moment.
Long among the most stable mid-major programs in the East, with a nearly .600 all-time winning percentage and eight NCAA tournament appearances, Boston University has defeated ranked teams before. It beat one a season ago, in fact. It even beat Oklahoma way back in 1993. It hadn't beaten the No. 1 team before, let alone a two-time defending champion. But down a run entering the sixth inning Saturday, Emma Wong reached on an error that allowed the tying run to score and Kaitlin Sahlinger brought home the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly. Who got more out of the weekend -- who will get more out of any weekend -- than those two seniors?
The weekend similarly meant something special for Louisiana-Lafayette, a program that appeared to be crumbling in the offseason after several stars transferred when the school dismissed longtime coach Michael Lotief in the wake of allegations of verbal and physical abuse.
Florida saw six Louisiana-Lafayette pitchers during Saturday's doubleheader. It didn't see Summer Ellyson, the sophomore who a week earlier struck out 20 in seven innings against Evansville. It saw her for all 11 innings and 185 pitches in Sunday's finale. And when she finally gave up a third run in the top of the 11th, snapping an eight-inning shutout streak, freshman Casidy Chaumont picked her up with a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the inning.
Whatever the truth in the contentious events of last summer, the most successful mid-major program in the sport is now in the hands of Ellyson and Chaumont and others.
The results aren't reason to doubt the favorites, just a reminder to settle in and enjoy the ride.