After sweeping the Tucson Regional last weekend at Hillenbrand Stadium, only a date with No.15 seed Louisiana State in the super regionals this weekend at Hillenbrand Stadium stands between the No. 2-seed Arizona softball team and the Women’s College World Series.

The best-of-three series starts tonight at 5 and continues tomorrow evening at 6 with a third game following the second contest at 8:30 if the teams split the first two games. ESPNU will televise the entire series.

The Wildcats (47-9) enter the weekend riding a 13-game winning streak that the team has carried since April 28, when they lost to No. 1-seeded UCLA. Undefeated in May, Arizona has beaten its Pacific 10 Conference foes, as well as knocking out Marist, Ohio State and Auburn in last weekend’s regionals at Hillenbrand Stadium.

“”We just have to continue to do the same things we’ve been doing,”” Arizona head coach Mike Candrea said. “”Our expectations are to win and to stick with our plan and to continue to prepare the way we have been and take one pitch at a time.””

Arizona gets its first crack of the year against the Tigers (54-12), who went undefeated in the Baton Rouge Regional, beating Princeton before sweeping two games against Louisiana-Lafayette.

“”We’re just coming in and really playing our game,”” junior center fielder Caitlin Lowe said. “”I don’t think we really expect that much from (LSU). We just want to come out and do what we do best, as opposed to playing their kind of softball.””

LSU is a strong team offensively, as they average 5.2 runs per game, fourth in the Southeastern Conference. Junior outfielder Leslie Klein is the catalyst of the Tigers lineup, hitting .397 with nine home runs and 53 RBIs.

Two other hitters also pose a potential threat to Arizona pitchers, as senior designated player Lauren Castle has three home runs to go along with her 28 RBIs and a .368 batting average. Sophomore second baseman Vanessa Soto is no slouch at the plate either, as she sports a .362 batting average, seven home runs and 47 RBIs.

Junior Emily Turner dominates on the mound for LSU with a 27-7 record and a 0.83 ERA. However, the Wildcats spent only a short while watching video of Turner pitch in last week’s series after yesterday’s practice.

“”We don’t want to focus too much on what they do,”” Lowe said. “”They have good hitters, and they have good pitching, so we just need to make sure that we stay within ourselves.””

Candrea said that these next few weeks, the super regionals and possibly the WCWs, have always been his favorite time of the year.

“”It’s such a great time,”” he said. “”We have to continue to stay positive and enjoy the moment. That’s really what it’s all about. We’ve been having fun, and I want to continue to make sure that we do that.

“”We just got to take it one at a time and ride the wave.””