The Bruins will head to the hot Arizona desert with a chance to win their final Pac-12 regular season championship.

“Our team is just so excited to play and show our stuff,” said junior pitcher Mackenzie Ficke. “You can really tell, just talking to every girl on this team just how much we all want it and how hard we’ve all worked for it.”

The three-game series between No. 6 UCLA softball (31-10, 14-4 Pac-12) and Arizona State (19-27, 3-18) kicks off Friday in Tempe, Arizona. Should the Bruins win the weekend’s series, coach Kelly Inouye-Perez’s squad will be named the Pac-12 regular season champions for the thirteenth time.

The Bruins’ all-time record against the Sun Devils sits at 48-24. The past two years’ regular season series is split — both captured a victory at their respective fields.

Inouye-Perez said the team will play smart this weekend, taking it day by day and possibly resting some players. She added that although the team has an opportunity to clinch the regular season title, the end goal is to find similar success come postseason contention.

“It’s crazy that we’re on our last lap,” said sophomore utility Megan Grant. “I’m just excited, because it’s just what we’ve been waiting for, the start of everything.”

Three teams are in the running for the Pac-12 title — UCLA, Stanford and Washington.

The Bruins need to win at least two of the weekend’s duels against the lowest-ranked squad in the Pac-12. One or none and the Cardinal and the Huskies’ opportunity to hoist the conference banner could become a reality.

Since the beginning of Pac-12 softball in 1987, the Bruins have won 12 regular season titles — the most of any team in the conference.

“There’s great gratitude for being able to represent the Pac, the winningest conference. We’re the conference of champions,” Inouye-Perez said. “It is an end to just an epic story of just some of the best that have ever played the sport.”