Most of the time, they’re encouraged to stay positive, motivate their teammates and look on the bright side of everything.

Each game is a learning experience, and they’re trained to play as a team.

But this week has been different.

This week, players on the No. 5 ASU (34-7, 4-2) softball team have split up and tried to intentionally get under each other’s skin — a tradition of rivalry they’ll take to Tucson this weekend in preparation for their series against the No. 10 Wildcats.

“Going down to Tucson is always a little different,” senior catcher Renee Welty said. “They’re a little bit of a rougher crowd, I guess you could say. Last year we had a practice where we would talk bad to each other. We would just go back and forth.”

The team was split in two, and each player had three pitches to hear bad things about her play.

“It was supposed to get us out of our element, so when we went down there we could focus on tuning things out and focus on the game,” Welty said.

And last year, it worked.

The Sun Devils swept the Wildcats and eventually went on to win the national title.

But this year is just as important.

This year, not only will wins improve their Pac-10 and overall record, but they will also help the Sun Devils in their quest to bring the state of Arizona’s softball focus back to Tempe.

“I think it’s a little bit of everything just because the rivalry is so deep,” Welty said. “Pride is definitely one [factor] and the fact that we can say that we beat them — especially since there is so much tradition behind their school, and they’ve won so many championships.

We’re trying to take the focus out of Tucson and bring it back to Tempe.”

UA has won the Women’s College World Series eight times in 20 trips and also boasts 10 Pac-10 titles.

They will come into this weekend’s series with an overall 32-9 record, 4-2 in the Pac-10, to face the Sun Devils, after a 3-2 loss to UCLA on Sunday.

“The whole team goal is just to put it to them,” freshman infielder Christina Zambrana said. “We want to show UA what we have. It’s definitely going to be a good game. They’re Arizona. Plus, being in-state rivals, it’s going to be intense. There’s going to be a lot of action going on. I expect a good game.”

And the Sun Devils will head into Friday’s series-opener after two wins on Tuesday against UNLV, including a game one victory in which the Sun Devils tied a NCAA record with 10 home runs.

“It’s a confidence booster for sure,” Welty said. “We want to come back and show everyone what we’re made of — we can hit, and we want to go down there and feel good, be ready to go. That game [against UNLV] was just another game to get us ready and more focused before we go down [to Tucson].”

Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.