Winning the second time around is always a little harder than the first. The No. 4 Stanford women’s basketball team (19-2, 10-1 Pacific-10 Conference) will have to keep that in mind when it takes on the preseason Pac-10 favorite Arizona (15-6, 7-3) tonight at Maples Pavilion.

The Cardinal are riding a season-high 10-game winning streak and are marching through the conference schedule after an early stumble at Oregon. The latest victims were the Washington State Cougars, who fell 69-56 last Saturday. Seniors Susan King Borchardt, Sebnem Kimyacioglu and Azella Perryman scored 10 points apiece, while five other Cardinal players contributed between six and nine points.

The Wildcats are recovering from a heartbreaking loss to No. 20 Maryland in overtime. Arizona erased a 10-point deficit in the game before falling 84-77.

Arizona boasts a good outside-inside game, with guard Dee-Dee Wheeler leading the team in scoring with 17.6 points per game and center Shawntinice Polk right behind her with 13.5 points per game.

“We’re going to have to play really good team defense,” Borchardt said. “They have a couple of standout players and some excellent surrounding players so it’ll be a tough matchup.”

The Cardinal allowed the Wildcats scoring duo to score a combined 37 points but still pulled out a win in their first meeting this season, ending Arizona’s 34-game home winning streak.

“We’re not concentrating on our win streak,” Borchardt said. “We’re looking at each team individually and each game is important. It’s not like we’re all excited about this game against Arizona and then not Arizona State.”

Stanford rode the brilliant performance of Candice Wiggins in the first game, as the freshman guard scored 28 points. In last Thursday’s matchup, the Cardinal will look to shore up their presence on the glass.

“We’ve been working on rebounding and making sure they don’t get too many offensive rebounds because that was a problem last game,” junior center Brooke Smith said. “They’re a really good team and have some great three-point shooters, and they’re big inside. We need to also stop them in transition because they have some quick guards that get them going.”

The Cardinal will look to combat the Arizona fastbreak with a transition game of their own.

“I think as a team we’re looking to get out and run,” Borchardt said. “They have some bigger bodies inside so we should try and take advantage of that.”

“This is a really big weekend for us, both Arizona and Arizona State are really good teams,” Smith said. “It’d be great to come out with a pair of wins.”