The UW women's tennis team is back on the road with some of its toughest matches of the season coming up this weekend. On Friday, the Huskies will face California — No. 5 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national rankings — at 1:30 p.m., and on Saturday at noon, their opponent will be Stanford, the top-ranked team in the nation.

The caliber of the tennis this weekend will be very high, as both Cal and Stanford feature top-ranked players, including the No. 4 women's player in the nation: the Bears' Susie Babos. Babos was the NCAA women's singles champion last year.

"The Cal and Stanford matches will be challenging tennis," UW coach Jill Hultquist said. "We'll have to play really well."

At this point in the season, all teams are battling injury and illness, as playing multiple matches per week puts both mental and physical strain on players. The UW women have been playing with the minimum of six players for several weeks now, and even Stanford has been struggling with fielding a healthy squad. But Stanford's difficulties have not hindered the 12-match win streak that it will take into Saturday's match, as No. 73 Lindsay Burdette told The Stanford Daily.

"We did an unbelievable job of pulling through injuries and a lot of adversity in general," she said after a win over Texas March 14. "I think it says a lot about our team and what we're capable of."

While Stanford may have a better record than the Huskies, Washington matches the Cardinal women in positive attitude. Despite having won only three matches this season, the players have remained confident in their capacity to play hard and make every match a battle.

"All these losses could have put us into a funk, but the girls remain positive," Hultquist said.

Last weekend's match against Portland, which UW won 6-1, showed that the women have not stopped working hard. The team swept the doubles point and dominated the singles, losing only one match. Even that loss was a battle, as freshman Lauren Summers fought for every point, losing 7-5, 7-5.

"Lauren had a close match, one of her closest of the season," Hultquist said. "She was hitting well."

The win will give the Huskies an extra boost going into this weekend's matches.

"We played good, solid tennis against a good team," Hultquist said. "It's always nice to get a win."

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