SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA freshman Shawntinice Polk was named Pac-10 freshman of the year, marking the second consecutive year a Wildcat has won the award.

This season has been somewhat of a revenge tour for the Arizona women's hoops squad, who open the Pacific-10 tournament in San Jose tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. against Oregon State.

In December, UA fell at Stanford, only to beat them by 15 last week in Tucson.

In January, No. 22 UA lost a close one to Washington, 60-59, but bounced back to clobber the Huskies a month later, by 13 at home.

UA also had the same fate against both Arizona State and OSU.

"Any match-up (in the tournament) would have been good because everyone in the Pac-10 has really good teams," freshman center Shawntinice Polk said. "But, whenever you lose to a team, there is always that revenge factor."

Mark it 2003 Pac-10 Tournament First Round Who: UA vs. Oregon State When: Tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. Where: San Jose, HP Pavilion

The last time UA played in Corvallis, Oregon State prevailed in a close overtime game. Throughout the game there were 16 ties and 11 different lead changes.

The Beavers used a late foul by Polk to tie the game on a made free throw with 24 seconds to go, sending the contest into overtime.

In overtime, the big difference came from the charity stripe. Oregon State hit six of eight free throws and the Wildcats could only muster 4 points in the extra period and fell to the Beavers 71-65.

"We did not play well up there, and our team is very excited about this game," said assistant head coach Denise Dove Ianello. "We really want to prove to ourselves that we are capable of playing better against Oregon State."

OSU (14-13, 8-10) comes into the first round contest as the number six seed in the tournament after tying with Southern California and Oregon for fifth place. The Beavers were awarded the sixth seed after a tiebreaker.

They enter the Pac-10 tournament having lost five of their last seven games, including an 87-44 blowout at USC to close out the regular season last weekend.

The Beavers are led by junior forward Hollye Chapman, who leads the team with 12.2 points a game and is second in rebounding with six per contest. OSU also has another player that averages double digits in scoring, guard Leilani Estavan, who was named to the All-Pac-10 team yesterday.

More than just wanting to get to San Jose to give the Beavers a little payback, the Wildcats are just excited to participate in the second annual Pac-10 women's tournament.

"It's really exciting, all the teams are there and it is really a first class event," said Dove Ianello. "It's a showcase event, the semi-finals and finals are on Fox Sports Net, so our team is really fired up."

"I'm excited to go to the Pac-10 tournament," said Polk. "It will be my first time at it, but I know how big it is because the girls that have been here talk a lot about it. It should be really fun and competitive."

The tournament begins tonight when USC plays Washington State. The winner of will go on to play Washington tomorrow for the chance to play either UA or OSU.

"It's a whole different atmosphere in post-season play," said Dove Ianello. "Stage one is the Pac-10 tournament and we have to up our level of intensity, and stage two is the NCAA tournament where (intensity) is even up more."

Polk, Wheeler named to Pac-10 all-conference team

For the second year in a row, Arizona has the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year on their roster. Polk picked up the award yesterday while also being named to the all-conference team.

Polk finished the season in the top three spots in six of a possible 12 Pac-10 categories. She finished first in rebounding (10.8 rpg), field goal percentage (.625), blocked shots (2.7), and offensive rebounds (3.78); second in defensive rebounds (7.0); and third in scoring (17.9 ppg). Polk was also the first freshman in conference history to win the Player of the Week Award four times in one season.

She was joined on the 10-player list by sophomore guard Dee-Dee Wheeler. Wheeler was awarded the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year last season, and is a first-time member on the All Pac-10 squad. Washington's Giuliana Mendiola took home the big prize, winning the conference Player of the Year award. Mendiola was the first Husky in school history to win the award, doing so by leading the conference in assists with 5.4 a game and finishing while scoring 17.3 points per contest.

The final award given away by the Pac-10 Conference was Coach of the Year, going to Stanford's Tara Vanderveer. She led the Cardinal to their 10th conference title in the last 13 years, and kept her team in the top-10 all season long. This is Vanderveer's sixth time winning the award.