CHRIS CODUTO/ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT UA soccer players celebrate the Wildcats' 1-0 victory over UCLA last week. Arizona defeated Oregon yesterday to win its first Pac-10 championship.

The No. 10 UA soccer team's quest for its first conference title may have taken a few detours during the final weekend of league play, but the Wildcats still managed to finish right on course and are now the newest leaders of the Pac-10.

Arizona (15-5, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference) finished its regular season with a share of its first-ever Pac-10 Championship, after the Wildcats registered a 2-0 victory over Oregon (3-13, 0-7-2) in Eugene, Ore., yesterday afternoon.

Seniors Candice Wilks and Vanesha Bailey scored in the victory, while junior Jennifer Klein notched four shots. Freshman goalkeeper McCall Smith added to her school-record with her 11th shutout of the season.

A 6-3 conference mark ties the Wildcats with UCLA for the championship with 18 points, even though Arizona wins the Pac-10's automatic berth by way of winning the teams' head-to-head competition, a 1-0 win at Murphey Stadium two weeks ago.

The No. 11 Bruins defeated cross-town rival Southern California, 3-2 in overtime, to finish with six wins as well.

Arizona entered the weekend needing to sweep a two-game weekend set with ninth-place Oregon State and the last place Ducks to win the title outright, but once the Wildcats lost 1-0 to the Beavers in Corvallis, Ore., Friday afternoon, all bets were off.

"You talk about trying to set yourself up to be in a good position," UA head coach Dan Tobias said of the team entering the weekend with the outright conference lead. "Oregon State played really well on Friday. They put their chance away, and we didn't."

After the loss to OSU, the Wildcat squad was forced to wait and see how the rest of the day's matchups played out. The Wildcats caught a break, holding on to control of the conference race despite the loss, after Arizona State tied last-place Oregon and No. 14 Stanford fell No. 17 Washington Friday night.

"It was some friends of friends who called," Tobias said. "The first result we heard was that Washington beat Stanford. Then someone else got a message to me later saying ASU tied. It's nice when those things work out."

"We really just tried to focus on what we could control," Tobias said of the hours spent waiting to see how ASU and Stanford finished the night. "I just told the team we need to put all of our attention into playing well Sunday."

The only waiting the Wildcats will be doing from here on out will be rather brief. With the Pac-10's automatic berth in the bag, Tobias and his team only have to wait a few more hours to find out their NCAA Championship Tournament first-round fate, to be announced today at 2 p.m. on ESPNEWS.

"When I was talking to the team before the game I knew there was no way around it," he said. "We knew it would mean we were Pac-10 champs if we won. The team has shown commitment and determination from day one. Not only that, they've shown commitment and determination to continuously get better. I am so proud of this group, and it is a great step for the UA soccer program. The credit goes to the 22 student-athletes. They've done all the work, and I'm proud of this team and what they've accomplished."

Tobias took over a UA program before last season that had never won more than eight games in a season, had never finished better than seventh in the Pac-10 standings and had never come close to an NCAA tournament berth.

But after posting a 6-11-2 overall mark and 2-6-1 finish in Pac-10 play in 2003, Tobias' team, a group of 11 returning players and 11 newcomers, has gone from Pac-10 doormat to champion of arguably the nation's strongest conference.

"Hopefully it's the first of more to come," he said.