CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman pitcher Taryne Mowatt winds up against Hawaii in Arizona's Feb. 20 matchup. No. 2 Arizona will face Pac-10 rivals Stanford and California this weekend at Hillenbrand Stadium.

The brushes are dried. The paint cans are fastened and put away.

Watch out, members of the No. 2 Arizona softball team: You're officially the No. 1 target of the Pacific 10 Conference.

The two-time defending Pac-10 champion Wildcats (26-2) open conference play at Hillenbrand Stadium this weekend against No. 7 Stanford (24-5) and No. 3 California (29-3).

Arizona takes on the Cardinal at 7 tonight and the Golden Bears at 7 p.m. tomorrow and 1 p.m. Sunday.

"We definitely have a bull's-eye on our team, but we definitely need to have that intimidation factor," said sophomore center fielder Caitlin Lowe. "We also need to be able to back it up in certain games."

After a surprisingly testy non-conference schedule, where the team struggled to put runs on early but flourished behind stellar starting pitching, the Wildcats meet California in a matchup some expected in the Women's College World Series championship game in June.

No. 14 Louisiana-Lafayette, whom Arizona swept last weekend, eliminated the Wildcats from reaching its 17th consecutive Series in May.

"Last year's last year," said junior pitcher Alicia Hollowell. "We got to concentrate on this year. (The Golden Bears) have a good team, and we're going to bring it when we play them."

California brings two legitimate aces in their pitching staff.

Senior Kelly Anderson (15-1, .80 ERA) was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 22-29. She and junior Kristina Thorson (13-2, 1.09), each 25-game winners in 2004, stand among conference leaders in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.

Lowe said neither hurler presents a bigger challenge for Arizona, which leads the Pac-10 in team batting with a .323 average.

"We just kind of take the same approach for every hitter," she said. "We're playing against ourselves each time."

Junior left fielder Lindsey James is second to Lowe in the Pac-10 in hitting (.470), and along with senior third baseman Vicky Galindo, bolsters a fast Bears team (70 stolen bases in 77 attempts) that leads the conference in steals by a comfortable margin.

Stanford, meanwhile, makes their mark at the plate, not toward it.

The Cardinal lead the conference in doubles (40), triples (12) and home runs (39) and have struck out fewer times (100) than any Pac-10 team.

Senior infielder Leah Nelson tops a balanced roster with a .403 average, four home runs and 23 RBIs.

Yet in a conference with no shortage of overpowering throwers (see UCLA's Angelica Selden and Hollowell), Stanford seems content keeping opposing hitters guessing.

Freshman Lauren Nydam (6-2, 1.80) leads the Cardinal with 17 appearances but strikes out fewer than a batter per inning, somewhat rare in the Pac-10.

Junior Laura Severson (11-3, 1.95) has fanned only 57 in 68 1/3 innings but could get the start Friday from mere experience.

Severson is an example of Stanford's struggles against good teams this season. She allowed four runs in 1 1/3 innings in the team's 4-1 loss Monday to No. 18 Fresno State in the first game of a doubleheader in Fresno, Calif.

The Cardinal won 14-0 in the second game, its first win over a ranked team in 2005. Stanford has lost twice to No. 23 Northwestern and has also fallen to Pacific and Princeton.

"I don't really think it says a whole lot," Hollowell said. "They're in the Pac-10, they're a good team. They always bring their 'A' game every time they play us, no matter what. We'll have to come out and be ready to go."

Staying consistent throughout the 21-game conference schedule - especially difficult this season with seven of nine Pac-10 teams ranked in the national top 25 - is Arizona's biggest challenge, said head coach Mike Candrea.

"We've shown times that we've looked really good, but we've also shown times when we've given away at-bats and haven't done the little things that it takes (to win)," he said. "In the Pac-10, obviously, you've got to put your best foot forward every time you walk on the field, which I think is a huge benefit for Pac-10 teams when it comes to postseason play."