In a day's time Arizona could go from being the hunter to being the hunted ... and by a team with a better seed no less. The sixth-ranked Wildcats (48-12) head into Friday's winners bracket game with a victory under their belt after knocking off No. 3 Washington to open the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City Thursday.

UA had revenge on its mind all weekend as the Huskies handed the Wildcats three losses the last time the two teams met – a three-game series in Tucson earlier in the month – in what has become a turning point for Arizona this year.

That series helped refocus Mike Candrea's team giving them the tools and confidence they needed to take down the Pac-12's top team, UCLA, the following weekend. The second-ranked Bruins beat No. 7 Minnesota Thursday to advance to Friday's matchup with UA and now the shoe is on the other foot.

The 'Cats were the first team to hand UCLA's star pitcher Rachel Garcia a loss this season. It remains the only blemish on her 25-1 record this season. Much like the Wildcats wanted their revenge against UW, the Bruins will certainly be looking to make up for the two Ls handed to them by Arizona in Los Angeles in the final series of the regular season.

There is certainly no love lost between the conference's two biggest rivals and with a chance to take control of their side of the bracket on the line it means heightened stakes for the two Pac-12 squads.

"Well, we've played them before, so there's a lot of -- we're familiar with one another," Candrea said about taking on UCLA after Thursday's game. "On this stage, at this moment, it's just about competing like we did today. You have to have great pitching. You got to play good defense. You have to have some timely hits.

"I think any time we're playing a Pac-12 foe, they are very familiar with us, it's going to come down to that."

All three Pac-12 teams still alive happen to be on the same side of the bracket. Going into the WCWS Arizona knew that to reach the championship series it would have to likely beat both Washington and UCLA, and one of them probably twice. Beating both out of the gate will give UA the best chance to reach that final series considering the Wildcats would be in the power position as the only team without a loss so far should it win Friday afternoon.

The roles would reverse as Arizona was the third-best Pac-12 team coming into the tournament, but it would be UCLA and Washington having to battle it out to stay alive to only then have to beat UA twice to advance to final series.

There has been plenty of talk of moments from Arizona this season especially late and especially when the team fell in three straight games to Washington. The Wildcats felt like all three games could have gone differently and Candrea said that his team needed to do a better job of having success in key spots if it wanted to take the season as far as it could go.

His team responded and it has been those key spots that have propelled the team to a good position in the WCWS. Thursday it was catcher Dejah Mulipola who provided the memorable key moment with a two-run home run in extra innings that eventually sealed up the victory over UW.

Just the inning before that center fielder Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza made an impressive catch on the run that saved UA from having to see the winning run come across the plate for Washington.

Senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin had to be nearly perfect for UA to come away with a win Thursday, but for a team that has been so close to reaching this point over the last decade the moment has not been too big.

"We live for these moments," she said. "These are the moments that we prayed for when we came to play college softball. These are the moments we want to be in. To be here, with our team, getting the first win in the World Series, the first win of the World Series this year, it's a great feeling.

"I wouldn't want to share it with anybody else but this team right now."

Arizona is going to continue riding the wave until there are no more games to play, but first things first its rival awaits Friday afternoon in Oklahoma City. The game against UCLA is set to begin at 4 p.m. MST. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN once again.