The Arizona women's tennis team had no answers for No. 9 California and No. 1 Stanford this weekend at home, falling 6-1 in each match.
"Both of them were very tough opponents," said assistant coach Petar Danolic. "We could have done better against California because we matched up well against them. We had our chances, but we couldn't convert in doubles first, and then the singles matches."
Junior Maja Mlakar, playing on court one for the second and third times this year, fell to Raquel Kops-Jones of Cal (6-4, 7-6) and Stanford's Amber Liu (6-0, 6-1). Liu's dominating serve drew some, "Wow, she's good," comments from the Arizona men's tennis team, which watched from the stands. The No. 61 Liu forced Mlakar into unforced errors to earn the straight-set win.
On court two, junior Diane Hollands split her two weekend matches, winning against Jieun Jacobs of Cal (1-6, 6-4, 10-5) before losing to the Cardinal's Alice Barnes 6-1, 6-1.
"She was upset with the way she played," Danolic said. "She needs to get back mentally to where she was before. She's a hard worker and a tough competitor, and I'm sure she will be all right."
Hollands' win accounted for the lone point against the Golden Bears, while freshman Jessie Rochefort's win over Emilia Anderson was the only UA point in the loss to Stanford.
In the doubles matches, Arizona won one of the six matches over two days, with the sole win coming from the tandem of senior Debbie Larocque and junior Kelly Perry, which defeated Nicole Havlicek and Sasha Podkolzina of Cal 8-4.
With seven ranked players, Stanford had the talent to place any of their players atop the roster of almost every team in the country, according to Danolic.
"I still believe that we could have done better," Danolic said. "We need to come together as a team a little bit better, and believe in ourselves a little more."