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The Wildcats (34-16-1) are back in the dance in 2024, opening play in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where 12th-seeded Arkansas will also host Villanova and Southeast Missouri State in a four-team regional this coming weekend.

Arizona’s first game will be Friday against Villanova (31-22) at 3 p.m., while Arkansas (36-16) will start with SEMO (28-24) at 5:30 p.m.

Had a couple of late-season results gone the other direction, the Wildcats might have been in consideration to host a regional themselves; but even in hitting the road, Arizona is quite familiar with the Razorbacks, who they’ll most likely play should they defeat Villanova. Also, a number of current UA players have experience at Arkansas’ 3,200-seat Bogle Park.

Ranked 15th at the time, Arkansas came to Tucson early this season for the Bear Down Fiesta when the Razorbacks and then-unranked Wildcats split a pair of 3-2 decisions at Hillenbrand Stadium. Last year, Arizona played three games against the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, winning one (5-2) while losing a pair of one-run decisions. In 2021, UA beat sixth-seeded Arkansas in the Super Regionals at Fayetteville to advance to the Women’s College World Series.

The eight-time national champion Wildcats had been in the field for 35 consecutive NCAA Tournaments — that includes Women’s College World Series runs in 2021 and 2022 — but was outside the draw in 2023 in coach Caitlin Lowe’s second season leading her alma mater in 2023.

But Lowe retooled her coaching staff a bit and added depth in the pitching circle, though injuries have hampered that somewhat. She also saw her already high-performing offense pace the Pac-12 in 2024 by leading all conference teams (including nonconference games) in batting average (.330), on-base percentage (.407), runs scored, hits and RBIs.

Arizona started this year unranked but entered the Pac-12 Tournament as high as 18th in one poll. Lowe said at the onset of the season that being unranked to start 2024 was “appropriate� given what the Wildcats had to prove after missing the NCAAs a year ago.

Arizona has played 21 of its 51 games so far this season against ranked teams — many of those during Pac-12 play.

In all, seven Pac-12 teams made the field: sixth-seeded UCLA, eighth-seeded Stanford, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Cal and Utah. Other UA opponents in the field include 14th-seeded Alabama, Grand Canyon, Omaha, Indiana, South Alabama and Northern Colorado.