The Arizona women’s basketball team kicks off its season on Friday when it travels to Bakersfield, Calif., to take on California State University Bakersfield at 9:30 p.m. Arizona time.“It’s the first game of the season, on the road and it’s a double header so they will have a good crowd show up,” head coach Niya Butts said.

“We are excited for it and I’m comfortable with the way we’ve prepared thus far. We are looking forward to getting out on the floor against an opponent and seeing what we can do.”

Senior guard Davellyn Whyte, who was just named an All-Pac 12 honoree for the third time, will lead the Wildcats this weekend with the help of junior transfer guard Carissa Crutchfield and junior transfer forward Alli Gloyd.

Whyte and Gloyd led Arizona in scoring on Monday night in the exhibition game against Grand Canyon University with a combined total of 41 points, accounting for 50 percent of the Wildcats’ points.

Even though Arizona forced 33 turnovers on Monday night, it racked up 20 of its own for the game. The Wildcats also faced issues with rebounding as the Antelopes out-rebounded Arizona 42-35. Butts hopes this issue will not be repeated on Friday.

“As far as improvements from last game, we have to take care better care of the basketball and we have to rebound the ball,” Butts said.

CSU Bakersfield comes off an injury-ridden season in 2011-2012 and only played six players on eight different occasions. This season its roster holds 15 players and is led by senior guard Amber Williams.

Between Whyte and Williams, it will be a guard showdown.

Williams comes into this season ranked fifth in the school’s history for scoring with 1,136 points and is only the seventh Roadrunner to score at least 1,000 points in her career.

Meanwhile, Whyte is just 11 points away from earning 2,000 career points.

In CSU’s exhibition game, the Roadrunners annihilated Fresno Pacific 115-79 as center Janae Coffee nearly earned a triple double.

Coffee only played 23 minutes and scored 29 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked seven shots.

The 6-foot-1 Gloyd, along with 6-foot-2 senior forwards Erica Barnes and Cheshi Poston, will have to fight against the 6-foot-4 Coffee to bring down the boards.

The three Arizona forwards had a combined total of 15 rebounds in Monday’s exhibition game, but that number will need to be well into the 30s against CSU.