Being in a Super Regional is not something new for Mike Candrea or his sixth-ranked Arizona team. This weekend will marl the sixth consecutive season the team has played in a Super Regional. However, advancing past this round has been an issue over the last decade.

Arizona's last Women's College World Series appearance came back in 2010. Prior to the that, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Wildcats were regulars at the event winning eight national titles from 1991-2007.

Not thinking about the drought has been part of what has helped the 'Cats get to this point as they prepare to face No. 11 Ole Miss at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium starting Friday afternoon. Candrea's feeling is that his team has its hands full already worrying about the Rebels to concern itself with thinking ahead to Oklahoma City and the final tournament of the postseason.

"A three-game series is a three-game series, but I really don't look at it that way," Candrea said Thursday. "I look at it as a one-game series, you know? I don't really look ahead. Right now I'm worried about just getting through tomorrow, playing the best that we can and taking it one game at a time.

"I know that's cliché and you don't want to hear that, but it's the only way you can approach this game. You get too far ahead of yourself or worry too much about what's happened, as a coach or as an athlete, it can eat you up. I like to be where my feet are. I always say, 'be where your feet are' and where my feet are is where I am right now talking to you."

While Arizona's players have talked this week about winning the Super Regional this weekend for their coach, they also have their personal reasons for wanting to break through the wall UA has been stuck behind for nearly a decade. Playing in the Women's College World Series is the pinnacle of the sport for most softball players and it is an important career mark to have in the book of their careers.

Arizona center fielder Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza understands what it would mean to get the Wildcats back to WCWS considering she has a family connection through her aunt, Toni Masceranas, wo played at for the Wildcats from 1998-2001.

"It means something special," Palomino-Cardoza said about UA being able to advance past this weekend's Super Regional. "... My aunt went to the College World Series and she won a national championship, so I think being here and trying to get back to Oklahoma City and win a national championship to be at the level she was at it means a lot to me. We're gonna do everything we can to get there."

Arizona has gone through its transformations this season and any of the hiccups the team battled through eventually turned into something better. Losses have turned into winning streaks and lessons have turned into growth for Candrea's team. Should the Wildcats make it to the WCWS and eventually win a national championship it might look back on the series it was swept by Washington as the best thing that could have happened.

Since then the team has been resilient and delivered in high-pressure moments. That shift is something the team has noticed itself heading into this weekend's series against Ole Miss.

"I think earlier this year in the first couple weeks that we played we struggled a little bit with tightness and 'oh my gosh what if we fail?'" senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin said. "But now it's come to a point of we have so many people that can get the job done. We have so many people we can rely on on this team, because this is a team and we do work together as a unit.

"I think that once we figured that out, and figured out that it's OK to fail because we have people that have our back no matter what the outcome is, we've just played a lot more relaxed. We've played a lot better. Our competition has gotten stronger and I think that we've been able to go out there and show who Arizona softball really is."

While so much of the attention for Arizona is inward and what it has to do to win two of three games this weekend and advance beyond the Super Regional, there will be team on the other side that has connections to the Wildcats. UA pitching coach Taryne Mowatt was previously on the Rebels' coaching staff and recruited a number of the players that make up the current roster.

Candrea said that might be able to help UA this weekend but his focus remains on what his team will have to do to earn wins each day.

"They're here for a reason," Candrea said of the Rebels. "They're a good team. They've earned the right to be here. They're a very aggressive team, and we look forward to some very competitive games."

First pitch for Friday's series opener is set for 4 p.m.