CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman Kristina Baum (right) goes for a kill during last Friday's game against ASU. Baum finished the match with two kills in Arizona's loss.

Currently reeling from a three-match losing streak, the Arizona volleyball team will need to recover quickly for its Pacific 10 Conference home openers ÷ the first of four matches against top 10 teams.

Arizona (6-7, 0-3 Pac-10) will seek its first conference win against No. 4 Stanford (12-2, 4-0) tonight at 7 at McKale Center. Tomorrow, the Wildcats host No. 9 Cal (14-0, 4-0). The Golden Bears' ranking is their second best in school history, and the team is currently riding a new school record for consecutive victories.

"We're not saying ÎOh, we're playing Stanford,'" said UA sophomore Kim Glass. "We don't really care about the name. We just want to go out there and make improvements. (In order to) get into the process of being that great national championship team, we just want to see improvements in every game and kick some butt and upset some people."

The Cardinal's only two losses have come to No. 2 Hawaii and No. 3 Florida.

Stanford returns four starters from last year's 32-5 NCAA national runner-up team, which ended the UA's Final Four hopes in the Elite Eight. Stanford did lose Olympic star and 2002 national player of the year Logan Tom to graduation.

"I think they're in transition after Logan Tom graduated," Rubio said. "I think like us, they're counting on a lot of players that haven't seen much time before. I think that Stanford is still obviously very good. They've got some of the best players in the country on the team."

Junior Ogonna Nnamani leads the way for the Cardinal with 211 kills (5.55 per game), hitting .324. Senior middle blocker Jennifer Harvey leads the Pac-10 with 1.81 blocks per game this season.

Though it is undefeated, Cal has only played one team ranked in the top 25: No. 13 Washington.

The Bears boast the current Pac-10 Player of the Week in junior outside hitter Mia Jerkov.

"Cal has risen from the bottom of the conference to now (be) considered one of the top teams," Rubio said. "They've got arguably one of the best players in the country in Mia Jerkov. She's a great player and I think they're a very well balanced team. I think they're deserving of their ranking, and each player complements another player on the team."

UA redshirt freshman Meghan Cumpston, who had the bulk of the playing time at Arizona State last week at the other outside hitter slot, was sick yesterday. Rubio was unsure about her availability for this weekend.