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JACOB KONST/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Senior Kelly Perry plays a doubles during Arizona's matchup against UCLA March 25. The Wildcats head to Northern California to take on nationally-ranked California and Stanford this weekend.
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By Matthew Bassin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, April 1, 2005
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The No. 49 Arizona women's tennis team has a tough road trip ahead of them.
The Wildcats (6-8, 0-3 Pacific 10 Conference) face No. 17 California (11-3, 1-1) in Berkeley, Calif., today, then go on to face defending national champion No. 1 Stanford (14-0, 3-0) in Palo Alto, Calif., tomorrow.
There's no rest for the Wildcats, who faced No. 5 Southern California and No. 12 UCLA last weekend.
"There is no off-weekend in the Pac-10," said Arizona assistant coach Brian Ramirez. "To play No. 1 and 17 after playing No. 5 and 12 is a tough two weeks."
Arizona is coming off two losses one week after ending its six-game losing streak.
"Cal is a winnable match," Ramirez said. "We played poorly against Cal when they were here and only lost 5-2."
Ramirez said the key to winning the match against Cal is to win the doubles point and get off to a confident start.
The doubles point has been a double-edged sword for the Wildcats all year. They have a solid team in seniors Maja Mlakar and Dianne Hollands, who comprise the No. 39 doubles team in the country.
Stanford comes in with the No. 12 doubles team of Erin Burdette and Alice Barnes and the No. 38 team of Amber Liu and Anne Yelsey.
"Doubles is a tricky thing," Ramirez said. "You can have two great singles players who can't play doubles. The game doesn't make as much sense on the doubles court.
"Maja and Di are doing a great job this year," he said.
The doubles point is what could benefit the Wildcats against the Cardinal. Arizona is only the second team to beat Stanford in the doubles point this season.
"For us to win the doubles point against them earlier this year, it really means a lot to our program," Ramirez said.
Stanford is 90-13 in matches overall.
"I just want to see us compete in Palo Alto," Ramirez said. "If we can get some points against them, it's an accomplishment, because not many teams do when they play at Stanford."
Every athlete in the active lineup for Stanford is ranked in the top 90, four of whom are in the top 30.
Stanford is coming off a 5-2 win over Cal.
