Women's tennis to take on Pac-10 foes Stanford and Cal

Concluding their home schedule this weekend won't be a simple task for the UA women's tennis team when Pac-10 foes Stanford and California, two of the nations elite squads, travel to Tucson.

The Wildcats are riding high after spoiling the homecoming of Tucson native and Salpointe High School star Kendra Strohm, who currently plays for Texas. No. 39 Arizona (7-10, 1-9) blanked the Longhorns 7-0 on Tuesday.

"A win against Texas was important for our confidence level," said head coach Vicky Maes. "We haven't got some of those breaks in the past."

Repeating that performance won't be as easy when facing No. 1 Stanford and No. 4 California on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Cardinal moved up to the top spot this week after upsetting then top-ranked Southern California last Friday. Stanford followed that performance up by posting a 6-1 drubbing of No. 7 UCLA on Saturday. The win over the Bruins marked the 13th consecutive victory for the Cardinal.

The Golden Bears are looking to rebound after seeing their own winning streak snapped last weekend. Before last Saturday's loss to USC, the Golden Bears had won 11 straight matches. Their last loss before that was to the Cardinal back in February.

Last time out against the Golden Bears, Arizona was swept 7-0. The Wildcats managed just one victory in that match, coming in doubles play by Kelly Perry and Kristy Randono. The Wildcats dropped the other two doubles matches that afternoon.

The Wildcats didn't fare much better versus the Cardinal in the teams' last meeting. The Cardinal defeated the Wildcats handily, by a 6-1 count. Graduate student and number one singles player Emilie Scribot, playing out of the two positions that day, handed the Cardinal its lone loss that afternoon.

"Everyone has to show up to play," Maes said. "We need to start off good, winning the doubles point and get support out of our four, five and six players."

It was the 20th-ranked Scribot who sent Tucson native and current Longhorn Strohm home with a convincing loss on Tuesday, 6-1, 6-1. The win for Scribot was the Toulouse, France native's fifth straight victory.

The Wildcats played an all-around solid match against the Longhorns, winning all but one set in singles play on the afternoon.

Arizona lost only one match Tuesday, a defeat coming on the doubles racquets of Scribot and Maja Mlakar to Strohm and Ziva Grasic. The Wildcats prevailed, winning the remainder of the doubles matches to claim the single-doubles point, and guide the team to the sweep.

The Wildcats will face off against the Cardinal this afternoon at the Robson Tennis Center. The match is slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. The Wildcats will play host to the Golden Bears tomorrow at noon.

Arizona will wrap up its regular season the next weekend when the Wildcats travel to Tempe to take on in-state rival Arizona State.