A late change in plans kept the University of Hawaii softball team from making the lengthy trek back to the islands on Sunday.

That decision will give the Rainbow Wahine a relatively short trip to their next destination, at least by their usual standards.

The Wahine were scheduled to fly back to Hawaii on Sunday but stayed in Las Cruces, N.M., another day, where they learned they’ll next head to Tucson, Ariz., to play in the NCAA softball tournament.

Hawaii (44-7) will face Notre Dame in the first game of the Tucson regional on Friday. The game is set for 11:30 a.m. Hawaii time at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium. All of the games in the regional will be televised on ESPNU.

The 64-team bracket was announced Sunday and UH, the Western Athletic Conference’s regular-season champion, qualified for the tournament for the 10th time in the program’s history and the fourth time in the last six years.

Arizona, the regional host and the NCAA tournament’s 13th seed, will face North Dakota State in Friday’s second game. The double-elimination regional runs through Sunday with the winner advancing to face the survivor of the regional hosted by Oklahoma in the best-of-three super regional.

"It’s a good regional, it’s going to be competitive, it’s going to be tough and we just need to focus right now on Notre Dame," UH head coach Bob Coolen said from Las Cruces.

While the UH coaches and players set their focus on the Fighting Irish, the bracket does set up the tantalizing possibility of a matchup between UH senior pitcher Stephanie Ricketts and her younger sister and Oklahoma ace Keilani Ricketts, should both teams advance.

Rather than fly over the state border, Coolen said he’s looking into taking a bus to Tucson, about a 5-hour drive. He hopes the team can start the next leg of its postseason trip on Tuesday.

"Since we’re already on the road, we’re going to try to get out of here and into Arizona as quickly as possible," Coolen said.

In the meantime, the Wahine practiced at New Mexico State on Sunday and the Aggies will open their facility to the team again today. After Las Cruces experienced an unusually wet week during the WAC tournament, Coolen said the conditions are drying out before the Wahine head to similar conditions in Arizona.

Temperatures in Tucson —where UH went 1-4 in NCAA regionals in 1998 and 2001 — are forecasted to top out near 100 degrees this weekend.

"Today was a little bit of a hot day, tomorrow’s going to be a hot day. So hopefully we can acclimate ourselves and get ready for that type of heat and play well," Coolen said.

"When we first got here it was humid with all the rain. Right now it’s starting to get drier, and the kids are understanding they need to hydrate."

When the Wahine depart New Mexico, they’ll try to leave a rough end to the WAC tournament behind. UH closed the tournament with losses to Brigham Young and Fresno State last Friday.

Notre Dame (38-14) finished second in the Big East in the regular season and lost to Louisville in the final of the conference tournament on a walk-off home run in the eighth inning on Saturday. The loss ended a 17-game winning streak for the Fighting Irish, who made the NCAA tournament for the 17th straight year. UH owns a 5-3 edge in the all-time series with Notre Dame, winning the last meeting in 2005.

Arizona, which knocked UH out of the Women’s College World Series in 2010, is making its 26th consecutive NCAA appearance after finishing 35-17 in the regular season and 12-12 in Pac-12 play, good for a tie for fourth place.