While some Arizona students will be on the beaches of Mexico during Spring Break, the UA women’s swim and dive team will still be in work mode, attempting to win its second NCAA National Championship in three years on March 18 in West Lafayette, Ind.

The women’s team had an up-and-down dual meet season, with high points including a home win over then No. 1 Texas, and low points including a sweep at the hands of conference rivals California and Stanford.

The team is also coming off a fourth-place finish at the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, but the women don’t believe that their finish at the Pac-10s is telling of their future performance.

“”We’ve been struggling a bit, and everyone has counted us out, but that’s fine with us,”” said senior Ana Agy. “”Our best performances are yet to come.””

The team is currently deep into its preparation for the NCAAs, as the practice workload has been scaled back and the swimmers have gone into full taper mode. The swimming distances have also been cut down as the team focuses more on speed.

While many of the Pac-10 teams started tapering for the conference championships, the Arizona coaches only have their swimmers taper for the national championships.

A big advantage of the tapering program used by head coach Frank Busch is that it saves the team’s rest for this time of the year right before nationals. The team basically over-trains during the dual meet season and conference championships, but, when they taper before the NCAAs, the swimmers feel refreshed and capable of top-notch races.

“”We all have faith in the program and our coaches,”” Agy said. “”Right now, I’m pretty excited about where my swimming is, and my body is ready to race.””

Agy is part of a remarkable senior class; it is the largest in the team’s history and the first one to ever send a full team to nationals. The class will now try to win a championship and go out with a bang.

“”It would be a picture-perfect ending,”” Agy said.