The Laxcats won three crucial conference games this weekend in Los Angeles, earning a postseason playoff berth in the process.

UA was able to remain undefeated in the three-game West Coast sweep.

"Every game we are getting better," head coach Adam Hopkins said, "and that is our goal."

Arizona (5-0, 4-0) opened up the weekend on Friday afternoon when they defeated Chapman University 12-10.

The Laxcats played a strong first half and jumped all over the Panthers 6-1.

However, Chapman came storming back in the third quarter and the Laxcats headed into final quarter leading 9-8. Arizona held onto the victory with strong defense and goaltending from freshman Sean Koffel.

On Saturday, it was a completely different story.

The first quarter would serve as a wake-up call for the Laxcats.

The team fell behind to Loyola Marymount University, 6-1, the same score they were ahead of Chapman by the day before.

However, UA would fare better than the Panthers did and was able to fight back into the game behind the strong scoring of the Laxcats attackmen.

The Laxcats would go on to outscore the Lions, 14-5, in the final three quarters and pull out the 15-11 win.

The Laxcats' third and final game of the weekend was an 8-5 victory over UCLA. UA again jumped out to an early lead with three first-half goals by junior attackman Josh Morrison.

The Laxcats led the entire game to finish out the Los Angeles sweep.

Junior attackman Jason Stratafora led all Laxcats scorers with 15 points in the three games, and junior defenseman Jeff Kinsella anchored the defense.

Hopkins gave a great deal of credit to Kinsella for his defensive play over the weekend.

"As (Kinsella) goes, we go," Hopkins said.

The sweep secured at least a fourth-place conference finish for the Laxcats and a place in the postseason. With one more conference win over either Arizona State or the University of California Santa Barbara, the Laxcats will earn a first-round home game.

The Laxcats will begin an important week tomorrow when they play the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines at Laxcat Field.

The game tomorrow will be the start of a nine-game stretch that includes playing four games in five days.