UCLA, Arizona softball players take center stage at NCAA tournament, Tokyo Olympics

College softball star Rachel Garcia has some big items on her to-do list in the next few months: Help UCLA defend its 2019 Women’s College World Series title and help Team USA reclaim Olympic gold in Tokyo.

Garcia isn’t alone in that quest, however. Bruins outfielder Bubba Nickles has the same agenda and was the first person the ace pitcher called in October 2019 when she found out she made the Olympic team.

“I was just as excited for her (to make the Olympic team),” Garcia told USA TODAY Sports. “To do it alongside one of my best friends makes it even more special.”

In a fitting twist, an Arizona star will seek to keep the UCLA seniors from accomplishing goal No. 1 before joining them to conquer goal No. 2. Wildcats catcher Dejah Mulipola also was selected to the U.S. Olympic team, joining Garcia and Nickles as the only current college players on the roster.

What the players didn't know in October 2019 was how different their journey to Tokyo would be - from a canceled 2020 college season to a postponed Olympics thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic to a return to campus and a spot in the 2021 NCAA tournament, which began Thursday.

College comes first

The Olympics, however, do not begin until later this summer when softball and baseball will kick off the Tokyo Games two days before the July 23 opening ceremonies. Before then, there are NCAA tournament games to be played and a trophy to be won in Oklahoma City when the Women’s College World Series begins June 3.

The Bruins begin defense of their title Friday as hosts of the Los Angeles regional and will take on Long Beach State at 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

UCLA received the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament behind top seed Oklahoma. Garcia is perfectly comfortable leading one of the prohibitive favorites.

“It’s definitely a pressure I embrace,” Garcia says.

And with good reason. A 2019 national player and pitcher of the year, Garcia is 14-0 with 124 strikeouts this season and ranks second in the nation with a .060 ERA. And as one of the few college pitchers who also excels as a batter, her 2021 hitting stats are just as eye-popping: 11 home runs, 30 RBI and a .362 average.

Nickles, who has been out with a wrist injury since midway through the season, still drove in 22 runs with four homers and a .353 average.

Mulipola, the 2019 NFCA catcher of the year, has been one of the best sluggers in the nation. The senior is hitting .392 with 17 home runs and 55 RBI (eighth in Division I).

"She has everything that she needs to be an Olympian – very composed, her tools are off the charts," Arizona associate head coach Caitlin Lowe says of Mulipola. "She always makes her pitchers better; she’s a huge part of that battery. She’s become such a leader, which is a true testament to training with (the national team) and then coming back to college and being able to utilize that part of her game too.”

Arizona earned the No. 11 seed and will host Mississippi, Villanova and Maryland-Baltimore County in the Tucson regional. The Wildcats play UMBC at 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN3).

PREDICTIONS: USA TODAY Network picks winners for every regional

From rivals to teammates

The UCLA-Arizona softball rivalry is legendary. Picture Yankees-Red Sox in Major League Baseball or Duke-North Carolina in men’s college basketball.

They are the two winningest programs in NCAA history; UCLA has 12 national championships to Arizona's eight, and their battles for softball supremacy have been raging since Arizona beat UCLA in the 1991 Women's College World Series final. The Bruins won their first NCAA title in 1982.

“Ever since Arizona won their first championship, it's been a head-to-head battle,” UCLA assistant coach and three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Fernandez says. “Regardless of rankings, it's always a dogfight. There is such a history between the two programs.”

And on this topic, Fernandez will get no dispute from her Arizona counterpart.

"It's the best there's truly ever been” says Lowe, a four-time All-American and two-time national champion as a player with the Wildcats.

UCLA beat Arizona in three of four meetings to end the Pac-12 season, and the teams would not meet again unless they are one of eight teams from the 64-team field to reach Oklahoma City.

“There’s always going to be teams gunning for us, and we understand that,” Fernandez says. "You still have to play on the field, and winners aren’t selected just by what’s on paper. Experience does help, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to compete. … You cannot take anything for granted in this game.”

Pandemic alters sports landscape

When Garcia, Nickles and Mulipola were selected for the Olympics in 2019, the players expected to take off the 2020 college season to play with the national team before returning for their senior seasons in 2021 — until the COVID-19 pandemic threw the world into a tailspin.

With the Tokyo Games postponed one year and the 2020 NCAA spring sports season canceled, the trio would find their plans reversed. Instead of taking a season off to play for Team USA, they would now finish out their college careers first.

Fernandez and Lowe, an Olympic silver medalist, agree that it provided the college players an advantage the 12 other U.S. Olympic players don't have. The U.S. national team played together in 2019 and planned to compete against college teams last spring to prepare for Tokyo, but most of the players were forced to train on their own in 2020 amid the pandemic shutdown.

“As an Olympic athlete, post-college, you truly have to be self-motivated and self-disciplined," Fernandez says. “The one benefit for Rachel and Bubba (in coming back to UCLA), they were able to stay on a routine, get the games, get the at-bats against live pitching that I think is definitely an advantage.”

Olympic veterans provide mentorship

Softball has not been played in the Olympics since the 2008 Beijing Games after it was voted out of the program along with baseball. But with International Olympic Committee rules allowing host nations to add sports popular at home, the last country to win Olympic gold in softball made sure the sports would be back for Tokyo.

And the players will have to make the most of this Olympic experience because softball (and baseball) will not be on the docket in Paris in 2024. For Garcia, Nickles and Mulipola, Tokyo could be their lone chance to play for gold even if the sports are included in the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The pandemic added another big hit, limiting the time the collegiate stars got to spend with their U.S. teammates.

For Garcia, that meant leaning on Fernandez, who as a pitcher and a batter helped the U.S. win the first three Olympic gold medals awarded, in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

Garcia is acutely aware of her mentor’s accomplishments – Fernandez also led the Bruins to NCAA championships as a player in 1990 and 1992 and in 1993 became the first softball player to win the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the best female athlete in all of college sports – and feels incredibly lucky to have such an important resource to guide her college and now Olympic career.

“She’s someone without a doubt I go to in times of self-doubt,” Garcia says of Fernandez. “She’s always there for me, not just in the dugout or in the bullpen, but just to talk with to take my mind off things. I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to work with her. She's someone who brings out the best in you on and off the field.”

Garcia says she also has been able to learn from veteran U.S. pitchers Cat Osterman and Monica Abbott, who, along with Lowe, won silver medals in 2008. Osterman and Abbott returned to the U.S. national team after a long absence following softball’s removal from the Olympics.

“Just being around them and soaking up their knowledge,” Garcia says of the former USA Softball college players of the year (Osterman in 2003, ’05 and ‘06 and Abbott in '07). “It’s very beneficial to have them be a part of it because they have so much experience having been Olympians before.”

Lowe also was quick to credit her former Olympic teammates for Mulipola’s growth, noting the change she saw in her star this season after spending time training with the national team.

“I don’t think many people know that (Mulipola) can call a great game behind the plate, and that’s something that doesn’t happen a lot in college softball,” Lowe says. “And when you do that you really have to be on the same level as your pitcher and share the same brain.

"I think they’ve helped each other grow in a lot of ways. I got a text from Cat that she loves throwing to her, so that always makes you feel good because she really does make the pitchers better.”

The mission in Tokyo – to return the gold medal to the USA – will require beating the Japanese on their home field – no easy task in the best of circumstances – but the college stars will get plenty of preparation for intense competition and elimination games in the NCAA tournament.

And if the two longtime rivals collide again in the Women’s College World Series, no one should be surprised. Garcia, Nickles and Mulipola will happily duke it out on the field in opposing college colors, knowing that when the dust settles, they’ll be sharing the same red-white-and-blue uniforms in July.

Follow Ellen J. Horrow on Twitter @EllenJHorrow

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic talent gives UCLA, Arizona softball teams NCAA tournament lift