In 1997, Michelle Phalen was an assistant softball coach at the University of South Carolina, a perennial power in the Southeastern Conference that won 63 games that season, the third most in NCAA history.

Shortly after the season ended, Phalen agreed to become the first women's softball coach at Pitt. Talk about culture shock.

Phalen had gone from working with some of the best softball players in the country to trying to recruit students who thought they had played their last competitive games in high school.

There were plenty of trying times in the early stages of the program. The Panthers were 16-46-1 in their first two seasons, including 0-12 in their abbreviated inaugural campaign.

But the memories of those rough early years are becoming more and more distant. Pitt (31-24) enters this week's Big East tournament with the best record in school history and is aiming to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in the 11-year history of the program.

"We've come such a long way," Phalen said. "It's so rewarding and so exciting."

The No. 7-seeded Panthers will play second-seeded DePaul in a first-round game tomorrow in Louisville, Ky. The Big East champion receives an automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament field.

Phalen said the Panthers would be in position to earn an at-large berth if they win two games and advance to the Big East title game. This is the third consecutive season the Panthers have qualified for the Big East tournament. They own one tournament win, in 2006.

The Panthers had upset four ranked teams in the regular season. Last weekend, they beat No. 23 DePaul, 7-3.

Pitt has played well against the top teams in the conference for most of the season. The Panthers split with DePaul and No. 4 seed Notre Dame. When the Panthers beat the Irish last weekend, it was the first victory against Notre Dame in 21 tries. They lost two one-run games against first-place South Florida, the No. 1 seed.

Pitt set school records with 12 Big East victories and 13 shutouts overall.

"We've had groups that have cared about softball in the past," Phalen said. "Now we're finally to the point where we have a group that cares and has the talent to succeed."

Phalen has built her team with a mix of local players and recruits. Senior shortstop Jessica Dignon, a Baldwin High School graduate, is the school's career leader in doubles (45) and RBIs (111). She is batting .376 with 6 home runs, 17 doubles and 43 RBIs this season.

Four other players hail from WPIAL schools: freshman first baseman Alicia Broudy (Baldwin), senior outfielder Rebecca Stottlemyer (Charleroi), junior pitcher Kaitlyn Schuster (Elwood City) and freshman outfielder Ashley Amistade (Trinity).

The rest of the players are from states as far away as California, Arizona and Florida and others such as New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

I think we've turned the corner," Phelan said.