The Arizona Wildcats will open their final regular season series of the year Thursday, when they take on Stanford in California. The Wildcats are looking to improve their chances of hosting next week's NCAA Regionals; brackets will be announced Sunday night.
Arizona is 38-13 overall but just 11-10 in the Pac-12 as it faces the Cardinal, who are just 2-19 in league plat. The UA is ranked ninth nationally in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll and 11th in the ESPN.com poll. Their RPI of No. 12 nationally could help their chances of hosting a regional. Last year, the UA managed to host with a 48-7 overall record and 18-6 Pac-12 mark.
Senior Ashleigh Hughes said she’s proud of the way her team battled during the middle portion of conference play. The Wildcats played four top-10 teams — Washington, Oregon, UCLA and Arizona State — and then-22-ranked California within a month.
“I think right now, we’re consistently building,” Hughes said. “It’s always a good thing when teams don’t peak too early. I’m putting a lot of faith in the fact that we’re going to peak in the right time, going into post season.”
Arizona and Stanford will play at 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at noon on Saturday; all three games will air on the Pac-12 Networks. The team will fly home Saturday night, and get together Sunday to watch the selection show on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.
“I think we have a really good chance to host regionals,” Hughes said. “I’m not too sure about super regionals, but, obviously, we have to go one week at a time.”
