To kick off the 2019 season seventh-ranked Arizona will travel to Tampa, Florida for the USF Opening Weekend Invitational where it will take on No. 5 Florida, No. 19 Michigan, South Florida, Illinois State and North Carolina State. The event will feature plenty of intriguing story lines for the Wildcats including UA's first matchup against a top-five opponent since 2008 when it lost to No. 3 Texas A&M.

When Arizona takes on Michigan Friday to open the season it will match up two of the top coaches in the game with UA's Mike Candrea sitting at No. 2 on the NCAA's all-time wins list with 1,563 victories, which is just eight wins behind UM's Carol Hutchins who currently has 1,571 wins.

Here is a look ahead at what's on tap for the Wildcats this weekend and beyond as Candrea and his team sets out to open the new season.

The Wildcats return seven starters as well as all four pitchers to this year's team. Leading the 'Cats is senior pitcher, Taylor McQuillin, who has established herself as among the elite becoming the seventh-ranked pitcher in the Pac-12 with her 1.68 ERA in 35 starts last season. Candrea believes McQuillin is in a good place mentally and has been working extremely hard this offseason.

“Watched her throw the last couple of weeks in scrimmages and she looked really good against our team and sometimes that’s a pretty good indicator because our players know her as well as anyone,” Candrea said. “I think the biggest thing right now is she’s throwing the ball with great confidence on both sides of the plate which we all know that was one of our goals is to get her to throw more in on hitters."

As for how deep Candrea will go in his pitching rotation he said, “In a perfect world I will be able to throw everyone a little bit this weekend. ... Our ultimate goal right now is to play well and win and so whatever that dictates will dictate who will be out there and how much time they will have on the mound.”

All six juniors are anticipated to be major contributing factors this season for the Wildcats. Reyna Carranco, Jessie Harper, Malia Martinez, Dejah Mulipola and Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza are all expected to be in the starting line up with Alyssa Denham tabbed the second pitcher in UA's rotation.

Four juniors topped the team's hitting list based on the highest batting averages. Palomino-Cardoza averaged the highest with .363, Harper .340, Carranco .335 and Mulipola .313. Last season Palomino-Cardoza led the Pac-12 in home runs finishing with 19 while Harper came in a close second with 18. Harper, Mulipola, and Palomino-Cardoza, are three of the six juniors that were named to the preseason USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List.

Candrea says he is proud of the players that are recognized on the list but he is not a big believer on preseason accolades, “Any time we can get some recognition it’s fabulous but on the other hand I think these athletes all know that the slate is clean right now.”

While the Wildcats are on the road opening the season in Florida, construction on the Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium will be wrapping up just in time for Arizona’s home opener versus New Mexico on Feb. 14. Shortly after the 2018 season ended construction began on an $8 million renovation to the stadium that first opened in 1993.

The new state-of-the-art facility will include a new entry way, ticket office, concessions, press box, restrooms, a seating shade structure, new chair and bench-back seats for the infield seating sections as well as an Alumni Plaza and a Club seating area. Fans can expect to see a slight increase in ticket prices to reflect the upgraded fan experience.

Candrea said his favorite place in the stadium is the Alumni Plaza because of the many views it offers of the field and mountains surrounding UA's Tucson campus.

Players are excited for alumni and their fans to see the new and improved stadium.

“One thing I’m looking forward to is seeing all the alumni in their little alumni section cheering us on and seeing what they have to think about the stadium.” Harper said. “The alumni are the ones that got us to this point and got us to get this big beautiful stadium.”

First pitch for Arizona's season opener against 19th-ranked Michigan is set for Friday at 12:30 MST.