RYAN CLAY/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona sophomore Laresa Marino lunges after a ball Saturday during a match against Washington State at the Robson Tennis Center. The women's tennis team swept the Washington schools last weekend for their first consecutive Pac-10 victories of the year.

The Arizona women's tennis team took its first strides in turning around what has been a disappointing season this weekend, upsetting No. 18 Washington and No. 28 Washington State in a pair of matches at Robson Tennis Center.

The victories marked the first time this season Arizona has won two straight Pacific 10 Conference games.

The Wildcats defeated the Cougars, 4-3, and UW, 5-2, to improve their record to 10-8 overall and 3-5 in conference.

The key to UA's two conference wins was doubles play, as they won the doubles point in each match.

"Winning five doubles matches was great," sophomore Debbie Larocque said. "It was a lot of fun to go out there and win each of them. It was great for our team and our confidence."

The doubles point turned out to be the difference, as the Wildcats and Cougars split their six singles matches.

Arizona was led in doubles by its top team of Larocque and freshman Maja Mlakar, who are ranked No. 13 in the nation.

Mlakar and Larocque set the tempo for the Wildcats by defeating WSU's top duo of Erika Perkins and Stacy McKenna, 8-5.

The character and poise of the young Wildcats was heightened further during singles play.

Mlakar, UA's top player, was upset in straight sets, 4-6, 4-6 by Perkins.

"Every match is important," Mlakar said. "I lost, but I am just happy that all of the other girls were able to win in order to give us the victory."

With its top player suffering an unexpected loss, someone had to step up for Arizona, and that person was Larocque.

Larocque garnished an upset victory over McKenna, 6-2, 6-3 to offset Mlakar's loss.

"I felt really good this weekend," Larocque said. "I feel that I got my game back a little bit. It is great to have that feeling."

Arizona went on to split the final four matches to earn the victory.

"Everyone played well against WSU," Larocque said. "Everyone was cheering on everyone and it was great. We were all pumped up and it showed."

In Friday's match against Washington, UA jumped on the Huskies early by sweeping the doubles point and never looked back.

Arizona's top three players - Mlakar, Larocque and freshman Dianne Hollands - earned singles victories to lead the Wildcats to a 5-2 victory.

With UA set to take the road to face No. 4 Stanford this weekend, Larocque said the two wins give the team the confidence it needs.

"This was a great weekend for us," Mlakar said. "These matches proved that we belong in the Top 20."