At the halfway mark in the Pac-10 season, the UCLA softball team is finally the owner of a winning record in conference play.

Now, the Bruins are trying to accomplish bigger and better things.

As UCLA (30-12, 6-5 Pac-10) begins the second half of their Pac-10 schedule today against Washington (29-12, 6-5) in Seattle, they are focusing on improving their consistency to get ready for the postseason.

“Pac-10 is important, and it really just gets you ready for the end,” senior 1B/2B/P Lisa Dodd said. “I tell the girls to keep your heads up, keep trying, keep playing well, and we’ll succeed.”

How the Bruins fare in the rest of the season will make a big statement about how much a team mixed with veterans and freshmen has improved throughout the year. Playing in a Pac-10 Conference in which only one team is not ranked among the top 18 teams in the nation for the second time will serve as a test to see if the Bruins can put a consistent run together against a set of teams that are all capable of contending in postseason play.

“It’s great to be able to set the tone the first time around seeing everyone, and it gives us great momentum for the second round of Pac-10,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said.

Today’s game against Washington marks the end of a long seven-game road trip that saw the Bruins put together some of their best games of the year while continuing to fight struggles in other games.

UCLA is 4-2 on the road trip so far, taking two games apiece from both Oregon and Cal, while falling to Oregon State and Stanford.

Just three weekends ago, the Bruins hosted Washington in two games that somewhat unexpectedly turned into games in which both teams committed lots of offensive and defensive miscues.

Washington sophomore pitcher Danielle Lawrie gave up nine runs, only three of which were earned runs, in the first game, and the Bruins went on to win 10-6, taking advantage of two costly Husky errors.

In the second game, the Bruin bats once again got to Lawrie, the Huskies’ ace, tagging her for six earned runs. But a rough performance in relief by UCLA junior pitcher Anjelica Selden, combined with two Bruin errors, allowed Washington to come from behind and win by a score of 8-6.

Today’s contest will not only break the tie in the season series between the two teams, but will also break the tie between the two teams for third place in the Pac-10 standings.

After today’s game, the Bruins finally return home for the weekend to face No. 13 Oregon State and No. 14 Oregon.

“With the Pac-10, you know you have to bring your A-game every day,” senior center-fielder Tara Henry said. “We have such a great team, and we’re playing really well. When everyone plays well, you play well.”

QUICK HITS: All season long the Bruins have seemed to fare better on weekends than weekdays. The Bruins are just 12-7 this season during the week, but sport an 18-5 record on weekends. The trend has continued into Pac-10 play, where the Bruins are 1-3 during the week and 5-2 on weekends. ... Selden’s 1,092 career strikeouts are just three strikeouts away from the all-time UCLA record held by Keira Goerl (2001-2004), who had 1,095 in her career.

With reports from Ali Haeri, Bruin Sports contributor.