The University of Hawaii softball team’s quest for the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title comes down to today’s doubleheader against Utah State.

The Rainbow Wahine continued toward that goal with a 9-2 win over the Aggies on Saturday in the opener of a three-game series in Logan, Utah, and need one win today to clinch the championship.

"I just talked to them about focusing on one game at a time (today)," UH head coach Bob Coolen said, "because if they set a goal at the beginning of the year that they wanted to be regular-season WAC champs, let’s go out and do it. Let’s just focus on that and don’t get far ahead of yourselves."

UH, ranked 12th and 14th in this week’s national polls, improved to 41-5 overall and 15-3 in WAC play, maintaining a slim lead over second-place BYU, which closed its WAC schedule at 15-4.

UH’s win over Utah State (17-34, 4-15) and BYU’s sweep of Nevada on Saturday also earned the Wahine and Cougars first-round byes in the upcoming WAC tournament by securing the top two seeds, and they’ll open tournament play on Thursday in Las Cruces, N.M.

Saturday’s victory marked milestones on several fronts for UH. The Wahine are assured of ending today with the best regular-season winning percentage in the program’s history.

Senior pitcher Stephanie Ricketts struck out six, walked two and gave up eight hits in earning a complete-game win, the 100th victory of her career. She improved to 26-3 this season and 100-35 over four seasons at UH and became only the third pitcher in WAC history to reach triple-figures in wins, joining Fresno State’s Jaime Southern (118, 2002-05) and Amanda Scott (106, 1997-00).

Shortstop Jessica Iwata hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to move into a tie for second on UH’s all-time list, matching Kate Robinson’s career mark of 44 and tying Kelly Majam for this season’s team lead with 11.

First baseman Makani Duhaylonsod-Kaleimamahu continued her hot streak by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. She gave UH the lead with a run-scoring single in the second inning and hit a two-run homer in the fourth to give UH a 3-0 lead.

"She’s just swinging well," Coolen said of Duhaylonsod-Kaleimamahu, who has hit .484 over the past 10 games. "She just gained all that confidence in that one series against (Louisiana Tech) and hasn’t stopped."

Iwata’s home run in the fifth gave UH a 4-0 lead, and the Wahine added five runs in the seventh to put the game out of reach, with Alex Aguirre’s two-run single highlighting the rally.

A two-run homer by Utah State pinch hitter Lindsey Marquez in the bottom of the seventh ended the shutout and broke UH’s run of 26 consecutive scoreless innings.

UH sophomore Sharla Kliebenstein returned to full duty for the first time since suffering a broken hand in late March. She made an appearance as a pinch runner last week and entered Saturday’s game as a pinch hitter. She singled in that at-bat, then stayed in to play right field. Coolen said Kliebenstein, who started the first 29 games before the injury, will return to the starting lineup today.

"We’ll let her get back in the swing of things," Coolen said. "We have some options. … We’ll keep going and not make too many drastic changes and try to feel it out over the next two games."

Campbell graduate Nicole Arata started at shortstop for Utah State and went 0-for-2 with a walk.