The University of Washington women's tennis team continues its quest for a win this weekend with two road matches against Purdue University and the University of Illinois. This will be the end of a string of four away matches for the Huskies, who are 0-6 in play this season.

Washington, who is unranked, will be facing its first unranked opponent of the season in Illinois. Purdue is No. 35 in the International Tennis Association's latest rankings.

"We're still not playing with a full squad," said UW assistant coach Fernando Sanchez. "Purdue will be tough, but I think Illinois is in the same boat as us. We're hoping for at least one win this weekend."

The constant struggle of playing with as few as two or three out of eight scholarship players has made it hard for the team to perform as expected. On paper, UW has the potential to turn its season around, but the key players must recover from illness and injury first.

"This season has been really frustrating," Sanchez said. "Not having all our players makes it hard to pull out wins."

The unavailability of many players has led to constant reshuffling of the lineup, forcing other players to take on new positions and doubles pairings. The team captains, freshman Joyce Ardies and junior Tara Simpson have risen to this challenge particularly well.

"Joyce has been naturally stepping up, even as she's been injured," Sanchez said. "Tara has really been demonstrating her leadership too, although I think a few wins will help her confidence."

In addition to rearranging the singles lineup, the coaches have had to prepare their players for different doubles match-ups.

"We try to throw the girls together at practice," said coach Jill Hultquist. "They might not have the match experience together, but it's not that hard for them to play with different people."

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.