Despite all the changes coming to the Arizona softball program, with coach Mike Candrea gone after 36 seasons and an accomplished senior class waving goodbye, the Wildcats players still feel a close connection.
“This year, we’re closer than last year,” center fielder Janelle Meoño said. “We’ve built a foundation within ourselves to become more like a family.”
Arizona’s high expectations remain the same heading into Thursday night’s season opener against Southern Utah. The Wildcats are ranked No. 9 in preseason poll, just two spots below their final 2021 ranking. They have been picked to finish third in a deep Pac-12 in coach Caitlin Lowe’s first season.
Meoño, the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is among a list of players ready to step into the full spotlight and prove what they can do. Catcher Sharlize Palacios will step into the catcher’s spot vacated by the departed Dejah Mulipola, and Hanah Bowen will return to the circle as the team’s top pitcher.
Arizona’s season begins Thursday, with the newly named Candrea Classic starting Friday at Hillenbrand Stadium. The Wildcats will take on No. 2 Alabama at 6 p.m. Saturday in a rematch of last year’s Women’s College World Series opener, which the Crimson Tide won 5-1.
The Wildcats will play 19 of their first 24 games at home. It’s a change from the last two seasons. The COVID-19 pandemic threw the softball world into chaos in 2020, and the WCWS was not played. Seniors were given an extra year of eligibility, and so Arizona’s stars, led by All-Americans Jessie Harper and Mulipola, came back for another run. There were no fall exhibitions in 2020, premier 2021 nonconference tournaments were canceled due to the pandemic, and the Wildcats’ season-opening tournament in Austin fell victim to a snowstorm.
Last year’s first bonding experience came on a hastily-organized weeklong bus tour of Florida. The Wildcats went just 4-3.
“We don’t enjoy losing,” Bowen said. “But to be honest, when you lose, you get so down on yourself, but you have to bring each other up. That’s what made us strong and made us believe we could count on each other.”
Meoño remembers the four-hour trek from Orlando to Tallahassee following a crushing 2-1 defeat to then-No. 25 Central Florida.
“It was a rough day that whole day,” Meoño said. “We woke up at 5 in the morning, drove to (Orlando). We’re all super tired. We’re sitting around waiting for the game to start, asking whether we should go change. I could have slept, honestly. And then we lost. Then, we’re silent for four hours on this bus, because after a loss, you can’t really be excited.”
First-year head coach Caitlin Lowe, right, talks with the outfielders during a practice last week.
The Wildcats turned their season around, winning an NCAA regional at Hillenbrand and a Super Regional in Arkansas to advance to the Oklahoma City for the WCWS. The team fell to Alabama and Florida State in what became the final two games of Candrea’s career. He retired days later, and Lowe was named his replacement instantly.
When the UA’s 2022 schedule ramps up — Pac-12 play begins with games against No. 3 UCLA, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 7 Washington, all 2021 regional hosts — the Wildcats will draw on last season’s experience. After all, the program hasn’t changed as much as it seems.
Lowe is a former Arizona star and was a longtime Wildcats assistant before being promoted. Candrea is still on campus, working as an adviser to the UA coaches. Harper and Mulipola are both graduate assistants, and Taryne Mowatt-McKinney still guides the team’s pitchers.
“Nothing’s really different, to be honest,” Bowen said.
