After sweeping No. 11 Arizona State (28-15, 5-6 Pac-10) at home over the weekend with an 8-0 victory on Friday night and a 2-1 win on Saturday, the No. 1 Arizona softball team (41-4, 10-1 Pac-10) travels to Tempe on Wednesday for a round three. The crowd of 2,811 at Saturday's intrastate show-down was a season high for Hillenbrand Stadium.

'Cats carrying big sticks

The bats were not silent for the Wildcats over the weekend; freshman Autumn Champion had six singles, going 3-for-4 in both games, bringing her season average to .459, and sophomore Courtney Fossatti was 4-for-4 on Friday. Champion leads the Pac-10 in hits, with 73 on the season. Senior Lovie Jung continued to show why she is an Amateur Softball Player of the Year nominee, hitting a three-run homer to open the scoring on Friday night. Jung leads the Pacific-10 conference and the nation in fence-clearers with 22 and is already seventh on the UA single-season list. Jung leads the Pac-10 in four other categories: runs scored (48), RBIs (64), doubles (17) and total bases (142). [Read article]

The women's tennis team continued Arizona's domination over in-state rival Arizona State this weekend, upsetting the higher ranked Sun Devils in Tempe.

In the final match of the regular season, the No. 28 Wildcats dropped No. 17 ASU on Saturday by a score of 4-3. The victory for the Wildcats closes their season at 9-11 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10. The loss drops ASU to 9-10 overall and 2-6 in conference play. [Read article]

It was a good weekend for Arizona athletics, especially given the majority of its competition resides at Arizona State in Tempe.

The Wildcats held a perfect 4-0 record against the Sun Devils, with both tennis squads posting impressive wins over ASU and the top ranked UA softball team roasting the Devils at Hillenbrand.

Forget the fact that the attendance at these events was painfully small (other than at the softball games); it is these sports that are carrying the ASU-UA rivalry. [Read article]

The Arizona baseball team travels to Phoenix today for a rare matchup against a Division II opponent.

The Grand Canyon University Antelopes (29-23) await the Wildcats (28-14, 7-5 Pacific-10 Conference) for the 7 p.m. game at Brazell Stadium, which will be UA's next-to-last non-conference game of the year. GCU is the only non-Division I team on the Wildcats' schedule this season.

Though Arizona may be tempted to overlook today's game and focus instead on its pivotal three-game set at Pac-10 leader Stanford this weekend, a surprising 12-11 loss to Sacramento State in the Wildcats' last non-conference action on April 14 may linger in their memory. [Read article]

The women's basketball program accomplished two goals yesterday when it hired its new assistant coach.

It not only got a quality assistant coach, but it took her away from a Pacific-10 conference rival.

Head coach Joan Bonvicini announced the hiring of former Washington assistant Yeshimbra "Shimmy" Grey yesterday as the program's replacement for former assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Denise Dove Ianello. [Read article]