Posted 02/22/17, 5:20 PM

DALLAS (AM News Net)  –  A pack of 2016 Women's College World Series teams will face off this weekend for the annual Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. The games, held in Cathedral City, just outside of Palm Springs, California, will take place from Thursday through Sunday.

UCLA, LSU, FSU, Georgia, and Oklahoma will all be attending. Some of the 2016 WCWS attendees will be meeting again for the first time in almost a year. The UCLA Bruins will take on the Florida State Seminoles for the first time since the Seminoles booted them out of the 2016 WCWS with an 8-4 victory.

The Bruins, only 14 wins away from 1,800 in total for the program, will encounter the Georgia Bulldogs and North Carolina State in a double-header on Thursday. In addition to leading the nation in double-plays, UCLA will also have red shirt freshman pitcher Rachel Garcia, the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week. So far this season, Garcia has a 0.23 ERA and bats .433.

The Sooners will return to Cathedral City for the 12th consecutive season, and this time fresh off of a four game win streak. The Sooners are down in the all-time series against UCLA at 3-9, but this year Oklahoma will be coming at them as national champions, having won the 2016 WCWS over Auburn.

Oklahoma will play the Bruins for their second game of a double-header on Friday, allowing old time friends to meet up. Oklahoma sophomore Syndey Romero played with UCLA junior Selina Ta'amilo at Vista Murrieta High School.

Oklahoma has went 38-17 in total since they started participating in the Mary Nutter Classic.

The LSU Tigers, another 2016 WCWS participating team, will arrive with a 9-1 total record.

“I think it’s a great tournament," LSU Softball head coach Beth Torina said. "It’s an opportunity for to see us play on the road and that’s important. We’ve been tested. We’ve played some great teams at home already this season, but this is a way to get the team used to playing on the road because it’s something that’s going to be a huge factor when we get into SEC play."

Torina hopes the tournament can prepare the team for future play.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of different types of pitching and a lot of different looks," she said. "And hopefully we’ll get a chance to do some work out there in preparing as well.”

More information and game times for the tournament can be found here.

More college sports coverage from AM News Net can be found here.

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