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Senior catcher Emily Zaplatosch has been a rock behind the plate this season, starting all 55 of

The pressure is higher. The reward couldn’t be greater. The stakes are immeasurable. But as the top-seeded UCLA softball team begins Women’s College World Series play tonight against Tennessee, the Bruins aren’t thinking about the greater meaning behind winning a national championship this season. Instead, a seasoned Bruin team enters tonight’s matchup with Tennessee as if it were any other game. “We don’t make anything bigger than what it is,” senior third baseman Andrea Duran said. “A lot of us are experienced in that now, and we’re just going to go in with a calm kind of confidence.” And though the Bruins are narrowly focused on the means to bring home a national title, it is hard to ignore what lies at the end if the Bruins are successful. It would be the seniors’ third national championship in four years. It would also most likely be UCLA’s 100th NCAA title. And it would avenge a painful loss to Michigan in last year’s World Series. Although many teams would try to take inspiration from all of the above factors, the Bruin softball team is different. If anyone should try and be an extra source of motivation for the team, it’s the seniors, who have a chance to finish their UCLA careers at a pinnacle. But the seniors have just the opposite mind-set. They are running on the same fuel they’ve been running on their whole careers. If the postseason has been any indication so far, there’s still plenty left in the tank. “(The senior) class is just very unique in that they’re not motivated that way,” Enquist said. “They have a perception about them that they don’t have anything to prove because of how much excellence they have shown over time. That peacefulness you see is not really a show. “They’re driven, they want it, but what they’ve done to this point is so incredibly special, and as a coach, when you have seniors that don’t have a sense of having to prove something, you don’t worry about them grabbing it too tightly.” After sweeping through NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals, the Bruins come into this year’s World Series fresh, relaxed and confident. Sophomore pitcher Anjelica Selden has had a much lighter workload this postseason as compared to last season. In 2005 she pitched in five elimination games before the World Series even started. The Bruins have played the minimum number of games to get to Oklahoma City. “I feel like I’m more relaxed because I have that experience from last year, especially since last year was such a fight for us the whole time,” Selden said. Another thing the Bruins have going for them is their familiarity with most of the teams in the World Series. UCLA went 7-2 against Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State and Northwestern during the season. The Bruins also notched victories over Texas and today’s opponent, Tennessee, in last year’s College World Series. But the Bruins are trying to push all the numbers to the back of their minds and begin yet another season today. For Enquist and the Bruins, nothing much changes. They’ve been here before. “The core tenets of the program have remained the same for over a decade,” Enquist said. “That standard is one they understand, and once you get here you have to remain emotionally disciplined to your routine. “The teams who remain poised are the teams that end up playing softball the longest.”

ALL-AMERICAN: Three Bruins were honored with All-American selections Wednesday. Duran and Selden were named to the first team while senior second baseman Caitlin Benyi was named to the second team. It was Duran’s first selection, Selden’s second selection and Benyi’s third selection. UCLA now has produced 86 All-Americans since 1978.

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