DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman Maja Mlakar returns a volley against Illinois last week at the Robson Tennis Center. The Wildcats play host to the Los Angeles schools this weekend.

Year in and year out, the UA women's tennis team has had the challenge of playing in the top tennis conference in the nation: the Pacific 10 Conference.

Last season, Arizona posted a 1-7 conference record, which garnered it an eighth-place finish.

So far the same has held true this year, as the Wildcats have dropped five of their first six matches of the year.

The road doesn't get any easier for Arizona as it plays host to No. 5 UCLA and No. 19 Southern California this weekend.

Arizona (8-6 overall, 1-5 Pac-10) has climbed up the ladder to No. 30 in the nation, but the Bruins and the Trojans each defeated UA 1-6 earlier in the season.

However, Arizona head coach Vicky Maes said the two matches earlier in the season are behind them and the Wildcats are ready to move forward and make a late-season push in conference play.

"We haven't been able to get everyone to play their best tennis at the same time, and that has hurt us this season," Maes said. "I am confident that we will eventually get everyone playing at the same level. When that happens, we have the ability to beat anyone. If that happens this weekend, we can definitely come away with a win against USC or UCLA."

UA has relied on the performance of freshman standout Maja Mlakar this season.

Mlakar is ranked No. 20 in the nation, but Maes said UA needs to get more production from its other players to be able to reach the team's maximum potential.

"We need to get our doubles team playing good together as well as our singles play," Maes said. "Our inconsistency this year has hurt us. When our top two players play good, we can't get everyone else to play well. We need to become more consistent."

UCLA comes in as the only school in the country with two players ranked in the top five: No. 3 Megan Bradley and No. 5 Sara Walker.

Arizona senior Brooke Taylor said she is confident Arizona has the ability to pull an upset this weekend.

"We have practiced a lot in the past few weeks," Taylor said. "We have had a good week of practice and we are ready to go. I know that we have the talent on this team to play with anyone."

UA has seven matches left this year, including five matches against teams ranked in the Top 25.

If UA plans to move up in the national rankings the final month of the season, it is going to have to make some noise this weekend.

First serve is set for today at 1:30 p.m. at the Robson Tennis Center.