The Arizona women's soccer team is looking for its first victory this weekend when it travels to Southern California to play Pepperdine and UCLA.

The Wildcats (0-2 overall, 0-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play Pepperdine (1-1-0) this afternoon in Malibu, Calif., and the Bruins on Sunday in Los Angeles.

After losing their first two games at the Soccer Showdown in Montana last weekend, the Wildcats are hoping to have a more successful weekend.

"It's a huge disappointment to come off your first weekend out 0-2, but if you let that get you down then there's no hope for even going out and trying to play another game," senior defender Jennifer Rickard said. "We have to take it as a learning experie nce and go in with a positive attitude."

Rickard said the team has put the losses behind it and is going into this weekend with confidence.

"We're very capable of coming out and playing a good game that we know how to play," she said.

Pepperdine has two forwards Arizona will have look out for, as well as a solid defense, UA head coach Lisa Fraser said.

Rickard said the defense needs to take control and the transition play needs to be more effective.

"We need to get up the field quicker in order to have a stronger offensive attack as a whole team," Rickard said.

On Sunday, the Wildcats will open Pac-10 play when they battle the Bruins.

"It will be a real physical match and we'll have our work cut out for us," Fraser said.

Rickard said the Wildcats are looking forward to their game with UCLA, which finished second in the Pac-10 last season with a 5-2 record.

"It's definitely time to get into Pac-10 games," Rickard said. "We need to go in and beat UCLA so we can show people that Arizona is a driving force in the conference. We want people to fear playing us."

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