The No. 1 ranked women’s swimming and diving team hopes to continue its winning streak in meets against Arizona and Arizona State this weekend. After a six-week break from competition, the Cardinal will open their Pacific 10 Conference season with meets against the No.5 Wildcats today and the No. 23 Sun Devils tomorrow.

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Women’s swimming and diving will look to stay hot in the desert, as they travel to face the Sun Devils and Wildcats. The Cardinal have swept the Arizona schools in each of the past two seasons. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6679
Stanford Daily File Photo

Women’s swimming and diving will look to stay hot in the desert, as they travel to face the Sun Devils and Wildcats. The Cardinal have swept the Arizona schools in each of the past two seasons.

Arizona looks to be tough competition, as it heads into the meet with a 5-0 record. The Cardinal (6-0) and Wildcats last faced each other at the Texas Invitational (Nov. 30 through Dec. 2) as Stanford finished second to Arizona by 104 points.

“Arizona is one of the teams rated as a possible NCAA champion this year,” Stanford head coach Lea Maurer said. “They are a formidable opponent, and we know it is going to be a tough assignment.”

Recently, the Arizona swimmers have been making waves in the national scene. In the latest NCAA top-times list, five different swimmers appear in the top times of 11 different events. The Wildcats are especially strong in the 50- and 100-yard sprint events, which will play a key role in the relays at the meet.

“Arizona is really strong in sprints so we really need to go out there and race them and not concede anything,” Maurer said.

Arizona State enters the competition with a 4-3 record. Most recently, the Sun Devils picked up their first Pac-10 victory as they defeated Oregon State 180-82 on Saturday.

As usual, Maurer is keeping this weekend’s meets in perspective.

“I’m not worried about the outcome of the meets as much as how we go up against Arizona,” Maurer said. “We just need to be confident, and, if they beat us, make them earn it.”

Last season, Stanford beat both Arizona and Arizona State at home, and swept both teams on the road in 2005.

The Cardinal have not competed since Dec. 2, but Maurer is less concerned about the team’s break from meets than about its recent intense training.

“The Arizona meet is one week earlier in our schedule this year and one week closer to Christmas training, so we are going in a little tired,” Maurer said.

Although the Cardinal have not competed recently, its successful swimmers have continued to draw attention. Freshman Julia Smit was named the Pac-10 Swimmer of the Month for November, and senior Cassidy Krug picked up the same honor for diving. Krug was also one of 26 male and female divers invited to attend the second of two 2007 World Championship selection camps. The camp will be held Jan. 21-25 at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind.

Krug is looking forward to getting back into competition and going up against a strong Pac-10 opponent.

“This weekend, I’m looking forward to developing my competition skills,” she said. “I’m going to focus on hitting my dives and making specific corrections on dives.”

Krug sees this first meet of 2007 as an opportunity for the team to kick off Pac-10 competition with a strong performance.

“It’s exciting that this is our first Pac-10 meet, and I think the team has a good chance of doing pretty well this weekend,” she said. “After our break, we are fresh and ready to go.”