Sun. Dec 22nd, 2024

UCLA has earned a spot in the Women’s College World Series finals for the first time in five years with their 5-2 win over Georgia in the semi’s.

“It’s a great feeling. It feels like it’s been a little too long,” UCLA player of the year finalist Megan Langenfeld said. “We have a bunch of alumni that are here and they keep telling us, ‘Don’t worry. You guys have it.’ Whatever ‘it’ is, I don’t know, but I guess we have it.”

They will meet Arizona in a best of three series this week. Arizona has claimed four of the last six championships including back-to-back titles in 2007-07.

“I guess it is like old times but we had to beat some very good teams to get here,” said Arizona coach Mike Candre. “I know coming in, a little bit of the motivation is the hype about the SEC. The SEC is a very good conference but we still believe that the Pac-10 can hold its own. It’s kind of fun right now to culminate with two Pac-10 teams. I kind of like that personally.”

It is expected to be a great series, not just because it is the NCAA finals, but because these two teams are long time rivals.