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Mike Candrea usually spends this week every year preparing his Arizona Wildcats softball team for a home regional playoff series.

This year, however, is different.

Candrea is taking the year off to coach the U.S. Olympic team, and the Wildcats are headed to New York, where they will play on the road after hosting 10 regionals in the last 11 years.

The Star caught up with Candrea, who is in Casa Grande until a Friday exhibition in Visalia, Calif.

A: I was traveling back from Maryland. I was in Dallas-Fort Worth, on the way back to Tucson, and saw the bracket. It is what it is. The big thing is that you're in the postseason and you have to win to advance to the super regional. At this stage in the season, you're going to have to beat everyone. It's disappointing we're not at home. If you look at the RPI, I don't know what the reasons are. I can imagine many different ways they looked at it.

But I like the draw. Go to New York, take care of business and come back and host a super regional.

A: Hard to say. I've always believed you have to take care of the business throughout the season. The interesting thing is now with ASU's program where it's at and Arizona's program where it's at, what the future holds. If both teams are ranked extremely high, are they always going to send one team on the road?

A: I think so. In Tucson, in Arizona, it's a huge advantage to play at home. You can sleep in your own bed.

But you're going to have to win it on the road anyway. You've hopefully prepared yourself to do that throughout the year. It's crazy right now — I haven't played a home game all year.

A: It is more comforting to be at home. You're not pressed. You can practice when you like. You don't have that travel day to worry about. With the travel day, you kinda lose a day of practice.

We were sent to Florida State one year; I thought that was a blessing, because the World Series was in Georgia that year. We've been to Minnesota, and that was a very challenging weekend because of the weather. It was rather cold. But it is what it is, and you have to go take care of business. Right now, the past couple weekends, the team has played very well. You hope they take that momentum into New York.

A: I'm very hopeful right now. In the middle of the lineup, Jenae Leles is playing as well as I've seen her play, which is nice. Laine (Roth) has been picking things up. The nice thing about that lineup is that some different people have come through on different occasions.

My biggest blessing right now is to see Taryne (Mowatt) back to her old self, throwing with some confidence and some aggressiveness. It looks like she's managing the game a little better. It's going to come down to pitching and defense. I think this team's got a chance to do a very good job.