The Arizona Softball team fell to the Florida Gators 3-0 on Thursday night in Oklahoma City in front of 6,483 fans.  The Cats gambled by going with starter Lindsey Sisk instead of ace Sarah Akamine. Sisk only lasted 1 inning, giving up 3 runs, all earned, walking 2 and only striking out 1. Akamine came in after that and stifled the Gators by throwing the remaining 5 innings, blanking 7, and walking 0.

(Sisk was unable to go more than 1 inning)

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[Note by SoCalStites, 05/24/09 8:50 PM PDT ] #1 Florida advanced to the WCWS and will be matched up with Arizona. Game 1 is scheduled for Thursday at 6:00 PST. The entire bracket can be seen here. 

For the 21st time in the last 22 years, the Arizona Wildcats have advanced to the Women's College World Series after advancing in dramatic fashion with back to back wins over Stanford on Friday. After losing game one, due to two costly errors, in the 3 game series in the super regional final on Thursday, Arizona responded with their back against the wall. The Wildcats are now one of only 8 teams that has a chance to be national champions.

Lindsey Sisk came to the rescue in Game 3 and struck out 14 batters to lead the Wildcats to victory

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Here's a brief update on other sports at U of A: 

Softball:

The #11 Wildcats won in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon over the Oregon Ducks. Heading into the bottom of the 7th inning, Oregon held a 6-4 lead over the hometown Cats. Brittany Lestrapes led off the inning for Arizona with a walk to get the tying run on first and K'Lee Arredondo took the opportunity, tying the game with a two-run shot. The Ducks then pulled their starting pitcher to put in reliever, Brittany Rumfelt, to pitch to Jenae Leles (pictured above). It took only one pitch for Leles to connect with a game-winning blast to right-center. The win extends the Wildcats record to 31-7 overall and 3-0 in conference play. This weekend will be one of the toughest of the season for the Cats as they are set to play Washington, USC, and UCLA in consecutive days.

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Here's a brief update on how the other sports at U of A are doing:

Men's Swimming:

The Pac-10 Championships finished this weekend and the men's swimming team finished in 3rd overall. Stanford finished in 1st to win their 28th consecutive championship win. The Wildcat's Olympian swimmer, Jean Basson (pictured below), led the team in the championships with a win in the 500 freestyle, 2nd in the 200 freestyle, and a 5th place finish in the 1650. The swimmers that qualified for the NCAA Championships will compete in College Station, Texas from 3/26 to 3/28.

Softball:

The Wildcats had a busy weekend with doubleheaders on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, yet the Cats turned in an impressive 5 wins in that span and continue to play at a high level. Arizona started with two games against Minnesota on Friday and scored 30 runs between the two games to beat the Golden Gophers. On Saturday, they had a doubleheader against Creighton and it did not start as well as planned. In the first game the Cats lost 6-0 to the Bluejays, but they bounced back well and followed up the loss with a 19-2 win. In the last doubleheader of the weekend the Wildcats displayed their offensive skills with a 34 run showing against St. Joseph's.

The softball team will not get much rest though, with another doubleheader today against Simon Frasier.

Women's Basketball:

The regular season ended in heart breaking fashion for the Wildcats as they missed buzzer beating, tying attempts in both games. Most recently on Saturday the Wildcats faced off against the #9 ranked California Golden Bears. At halftime Arizona had the lead, but good shooting in the 2nd half from the Bears led them to a commanding lead. The Cats were not done and they fought all the way back to a 3 point deficit but failed to hit a final, tying attempt. 

Arizona finished with an 11-18 record overall and earned the #9 seed in the Pac-10 tournament. They will face the Washington State Cougars Thursday at 8:15 PST for the opportunity to keep their season alive and play Stanford Friday. The entire bracket and coverage information can be found here. 

Another quick recap of how other sports on the U of A campus are doing:

Softball:

    In their second game UTEP played a much better game, forcing  the Cats to rally in the 6th inning to pull out a 5-2 victory. After the  first 3 innings, the game remained scoreless, but in the top of the  4th UTEP broke the tie to take a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the 6th  inning the Wildcats scored 4 runs off homers from Junior Stacie  Chambers and Sophomore Brittany Lastrapes. Arizona will play  host to the Hillenbrand Invitational this weekend.

Gymnastics:

   The #16 ranked Gymcats will be hosting their last home meet of the season at 7:00 PM local time tonight at McKale Center.

Track and Field:

   The annual Arizona International track meet scheduled for this weekend has been due to the low number of participants involved. As disappointing as this is for the University, it will provide the Wildcats with a few extra weeks of training before their first meet of the season which will be the Willie Williams Classic held on March 20th.

Women's Basketball:

   The Cats were heavy underdogs Thursday against the #2 ranked Stanford Cardinal, but put in a terrific effort in a heart breaking loss. Sophomore forward Ify Ibekwe (pictured right), the Wildcats' leading scorer and rebounder, returned to action after missing two games with a knee injury and finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds. In the late second half, U of A went on a terrific run to cut Stanford's lead to 65-64 with only 1:36 to play. The Cardinal recovered to extend their lead back to 4 when Freshman Courtney Clements hit a three with 5 seconds left to cut the lead to 68-67. Stanford made both free throws and Arizona missed a buzzer beater attempt to end the game. 

   The Wildcats will finish their season tonight against the #9 ranked California Golden Bears on the road. 

Men's Swimming:

   The Pac 10 Men's Swimming Championship started Wednesday this week and will continue until Saturday when a champion will be crowned. During the meet the Wildcats are trying to beat their competition, but also their times as they try to reach the marks necessary to qualify for the NCAA National Championships held in College Station, Texas. After the first two days of competition the 'Cats are in third, led by Olympian Jean Basson who easily won the 500 freestyle with an impressive 4:12.99.

Men's Tennis:

   The #17 ranked 'Cats continued their successful season with a 6-1 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies. The win was their 8th consecutive and only lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes. Arizona's next match will be at home on Sunday against the UCI Anteaters.

An update on the other sports of U of A:

Women's Basketball:

The Wildcats(11-16, 4-12) won on Senior Day against the Washington Huskies(6-21, 2-15) on Saturday to eclipse their win total of each of the last two seasons. Freshman Courtney Clements (pictured above) led the Wildcats with a game high 22 points and also dished out 4 assists in the victory. They will finish their season this week with a trip to #2 ranked Stanford(24-4, 15-1) on Thursday and #9 ranked California(14-2, 23-4) on Saturday. 

Men's Golf:

After two rounds of the Braveheart Classic, the Wildcats are in 6th place out of 18 competing teams, and are 16 strokes behind the tournament leading Oregon Ducks. Arizona's leading player, Brad Nicholson (+4) is tied for 21st in the tournament and is 5 strokes behind tournament leader, Tai Reynolds (-1) of Southern Utah. The tournament is being held in Beaumont, California at Oak Valley Golf Club

Women's Golf:

At the self-hosted Wildcat Invitational (2/22-2/24) in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, the women's golf team finished 6th out of a 17 team field. The Wildcats were led by Alejandra Llaneza (+4), who finished in a tie for 14th overall, 7 strokes behind tournament winning Jodi Ewart of New Mexico and Lizette Salas of USC. The Wildcats will be traveling to Florida for the UCF Challenge starting Sunday in Sorrento, FL. 

Gymnastics:

The #16 ranked gymnastics team of Arizona won their 4th in a row by a score 194.625-191.375 Sunday against California in Berkeley, CA. The Wildcats will hold their final home meet of the season Friday against Denver in McKale. 

"We're very happy with the win, but we'd like to be above the 195 mark," said Arizona head coach Bill Ryden. "We had some good performances, but feel like we could have been better."

Softball:

In a matchup between Texas A&M and Arizona on Sunday, the #21 ranked Aggies battled back from a 3 run deficit with 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh to force an extra inning. In the 8th the Aggies walked off with the victory after a bases loaded walk was issued thrown from Wildcat pitcher Lindsey Sisk. In the 4th inning, Arizona catcher, Stacie Chambers, hit her 9th home run of the season to center adding two more RBIs to her national leading total. In the next 5 days the Wildcats will be very busy, hosting eight games in that span.

Women's Swimming: 

In the Pac-10 swimming championships last weekend the women's swimming team finished 2nd behind the California Golden Bears by 211 points, but managed to edge the Stanford Cardinal by 22 points. The team will now begin to train to defend their national title at the NCAA Finals which will be held March 19-21 in College Station, Texas.

Men's Tennis:

In the latest ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) the Wildcats are ranked #17, the highest rankings for the team since the '81-'82 season. 

“I am really proud of the guys and how hard they have worked,” head coach Ted Berkowitz said. “I am really happy for the upperclassmen that were part of the team a couple years ago who were not even ranked in the top 75. This just shows how far we have come.”

The Wildcats will take this new, high ranking into the weekend when they play #70 New Mexico State and #75 UC Irvine.