OKLAHOMA CITY -- The NCAA softball championships begin Thursday with UCLA the No. 1 seed. So what else is new?

The Bruins have won a record eight national championships and have been to the title game each of the past three years. At 54-7, they have the best record of any of the teams in the field.

``I feel that we bring experience to the postseason,'' coach Sue Enquist said Wednesday. ``We know how to handle pressure situations and what to do when our 'A' game hasn't shown up.

``Our key is to get into our game as quickly as possible and take care of the ball on defense while making good choices.''

The Bruins open the tournament Thursday morning against Florida State (53-18). Second-seeded Arizona (52-11), winner of six national championships including last year, plays Nebraska (49-12) in the late game.

The other first-round games have third-seeded Arizona State (43-18) playing Michigan (50-9) and No. 4 seed California (52-19) taking on Oklahoma (49-14).

The tournament runs through Memorial Day.

Arizona coach Mike Candrea said he hopes his team finally plays with some emotion from start to finish, something he said the Wildcats have not done to date. At the regional in Minneapolis, they needed 11 innings to beat DePaul in one game, then lost 6-0 to the Blue Devils before beating them 8-0 in the title game.

``In that last game, we had our backs against the wall and we just came out and left it all out on the field,'' said Arizona's Jennie Finch. ``Hopefully we make that carry over to the College World Series.''

Nebraska is 6-1 in this postseason, but has lost nine straight to Arizona.

``Our confidence is high in all parts of our game,'' Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle said. ``We're scoring runs and we're scoring runs many different ways. Our pitching is doing a great job.''

Another hot team is Michigan, which has won 16 in a row and 19 of 20. The Wolverines have won 13 straight against ranked opponents and is 3-1 against teams in this tournament, with victories over Oklahoma and Florida State and a split with Arizona State.

Coach Carol Hutchins said she feels her team's schedule has the Wolverines well prepared.

``Our team has risen to the challenge the entire year and has played with a lot of enthusiasm,'' she said. ``I feel we're very prepared to play this one game at a time like we have all season.''

The home field advantage belongs to Oklahoma, which won the title two years ago and is making its third straight WCWS appearance. The Sooners enjoyed big crowds in winning the regional in Norman last weekend and should have more of the same this weekend.

``They obviously have home field advantage, but I told our team that we have to keep the focus on ourselves and take care of our own game,'' California coach Diane Ninemire said. ``After playing at Fresno last weekend, we're used to having a lot of fans against us.''