![\"Audrie](\"http:\/\/www.stanforddaily.com\/cgi-bin\/wp-content\/uploads\/spo012110wsd-300x201.jpg\" "\\"spo012110wsd\\"")
<\/p>\nAudrie Lin\/The Stanford Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The meet against Arizona is the toughest dual meet remaining on the Cardinal\u2019s schedule. Arizona is a perennial powerhouse and Stanford\u2019s annual duel with the Wildcats is usually the most anticipated dual meet on the schedule.
\nLast year, the Card defeated the Wildcats by a razor-thin margin, winning 150.5-147.5 in Tucson, Ariz. Stanford was trailing for most of the meet, but with five events remaining the Cardinal stormed back to claim the victory. Junior Liz Smith won the 200-yard breaststroke and the 400-yard individual medley and senior Elaine Breeden won the 100-yard butterfly to bring Stanford close to victory. Senior swimmer and Olympic medalist Julia Smit won the meet by .16 seconds in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
\nBoth teams went on to finish the season among the country\u2019s elite programs. At the NCAA Championships, the Wildcats and the Cardinal finished third and fourth, respectively.
\nThis year\u2019s meet figures to be just as close and exciting.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a really tough matchup \u2014 their strengths match up with our strengths,\u201d said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer. \u201cWe anticipate a meet similar to last year\u2019s. It will come down to who wins the touchouts.\u201d
\nThe teams enter this weekend separated by just four points in the national rankings and match up well against each other. However, Maurer isn\u2019t really focusing on the rankings table.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t really pay attention to them,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a big rivalry [with Arizona] for the past few years \u2014 the meets always come within 10 points. We\u2019re worried about the rankings the day after.\u201d
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t put too much emphasis on rankings heading into meets. I believe your performance in a competition says a lot more about what kind of team you are than the rankings before a meet,\u201d Breeden added.
\nWhile the Cardinal can usually count on Smit, Breeden, Smith and junior Kate Dwelley to deliver a certain number of points in a meet, Arizona\u2019s top swimmers are in similar events. Both teams have strong freestyle relay squads in the 200, 400 and 800-yard distances. Breeden will also face tough competition in her signature event, the 200 fly, from Arizona\u2019s Ana Agy, Whitney Lopus and Erin Campbell.
\n\u201cWe have some events that we normally pencil in as wins, but their big [swimmers] match up well against ours,\u201d Maurer explained.
\nThis weekend also marks the start of Pac-10 competition for the team. Arizona, Stanford and Southern California are this year\u2019s top contenders for the Pac-10 crown.
\n\u201cI think that the fact that both the Arizona and ASU meets are conference meets signify that we have entered a new phase of the season where the quality of competition increases,\u201d Dwelley said. \u201cWe have to be prepared to race with more intensity.\u201d
\nWhile Arizona is the main focus of the weekend, the Cardinal still have to face Arizona State, which is on a three-meet winning streak going into a meet at Berkeley on Friday.
\nWhen asked if Stanford would keep the same intensity as the Arizona match on Saturday, Maurer responded. \u201cThe pressure\u2019s on now. We have to race, we have to sharpen our focus and be able to handle the elements.\u201d
\n\u201cThe focus of these meets is to practice racing and work on the details,\u201d Breeden said.
\nWhile these meets are certainly significant, the main focus remains on the all-important Pac-10 and NCAA tournaments at the end of the season.
\n\u201cLeading up to the meet we are not doing anything special to prepare for this meet in particular \u2014 we are working hard in preparation for the end of season meets,\u201d Dwelley commented.
\n\u201cWe always head into dual meets with the goal of winning, but winning dual meets is not as important of a goal to our team as winning at the championship meets,\u201d Breeden added.
\nHowever, the team won\u2019t be distracted during its dual meets.
\n\u201cOn Friday and Saturday the team will be completely focused on the task at hand . . . racing Arizona and Arizona State,\u201d Dwelley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a strong start to the season, the No. 3 Stanford women\u2019s swimming and diving team (4-0, 0-0 Pacific-10 Conference) faces its stiffest test yet this weekend. No. 2 Arizona (6-0, 3-0 Pac-10) and Arizona State (6-3, 2-2 Pac-10) will visit The Farm on Friday and Saturday respectively. Audrie Lin\/The Stanford Daily The meet against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2073,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}