Going on the road is never easy. Going on the road to match up against No. 3 Stanford and No. 6 California is even tougher.

The No. 10 Arizona women's tennis team (7-0 overall, 2-0 in Pacific 10 Conference) travels to Stanford today to face the defending Pac-10 champions. The Cardinal has every member of last year's team returning.

"This weekend Stanford will be a tough test. Everyone on their team is the same, so we know them well, and we can beat them if we are all 100 percent that day," sophomore Vicky Maes said.

Maes, an All-American Arizona's No.1 singles player, will match up against Stanford's Katie Schlukebir, one of the top five players in the nation and undefeated against Maes.

"I have lost to her twice, both close matches. I think that she is one of the best in the country. I think that she is better than Keri (Phebus, last year's national champion)," Maes said.

Cal reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA championships last year, and is led by Amanda Augustus. The Wildcats split with the Bears last season, winning the first dual 5-4 and losing the second 6-0.

"I think that we are going to be fired up to go up there and play. It is going to be tough, but this is a team that really looks forward to those kind of challenges. I think that we are ready to go," said head coach Becky Bell.

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When the Arizona men's tennis team heads to Southern California for its first two Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division matches of the year, the Wildcats will take something new with them.

Confidence.

After losing all four of their home-away matches to No. 8 Southern Cal and No. 2 UCLA last year, especially a 4-3 loss to UCLA at home, this weekend means a great deal to the players.

"I think that the last couple of years we didn't have the attitude to beat these guys, like we have this year," senior Vuk Tapuskovic said."This year we aren't going there thinking that we are huge underdogs anymore, (that) if we win it would be a huge surprise. We think that we can really take them € seriously, there is no reason why not. If you go down the line, every guy of their team is no better than ours."

Returning from Israel is Arizona's No. 1 player, Jan Anderson, who played for Norway's Davis Cup team.

With its strongest lineup in years, Arizona features Anderson, transfers Henrik Wagner and Haugland, Chris Jenkins, Roland Kupka, Eddie Schwartz and Tapuskovic at the singles positions. Mike McKay is also traveling with the team as a doubles specialist.

"We are just going to go out (to California) and do our best. I think we have the team to do it this year. I believe that we have a team good enough to beat both USC and UCLA," Haugland said.