They never play soft, and don’t even ask them to quit.

The BYU softball team begins its third tournament of the season today in Palm Springs, Calif. Heading into the games, the Cougars are ranked No. 25 in the ESPN.com/USA Collegiate Top 25 Poll. The Cathedral City Classic is hosted by Oregon State and will include nine teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25.

BYU (9-1) will begin play today against Oklahoma State and No. 1 Washington. Friday’s doubleheader will be against Cal Poly and No. 2 Arizona. The Cougars conclude the tournament on Saturday against Long Island University.

As far as difficulty level, the Cougars face their hardest tournament this weekend.

“We definitely have our hardest challenge as far as the number of teams in the Top 40 this weekend,” BYU head coach Gordon Eakin said.

But the Cougars aren’t worried about the other team. As fans are accustomed, the Cougars are very conscious of their own game, and don’t spend much time worrying about the opponent.

“Any team can be beaten any day,” said third baseman-outfielder Angeline Quiocho. “What we do is play our game.”

The confidence is there, and judging from a notable start to the season, so is the technical aspect. But the team isn’t ready to rest on its laurels. There is always hard work to be done.

“We obviously need to continue to score runs, but I think they key this weekend will be pitching,” Eakin said. “We need to pitch well to beat the teams we’re playing this weekend.”

Pitcher Christie Zinanti agrees with her coach’s opinion. If the Cougars want to win, their defense will need to be on point.

“I think we just need to improve on this last weekend, which is hard because we’ve been playing very well, but I think our bats are coming along great, and our defense is where it should be,” Zinanti said. Our defense just needs to stay strong, where it’s been.”

“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” she said.