SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After playing its last five matches at home, the Santa Clara women's tennis team hits the road in a return to West Coast Conference play.
The 75th-ranked Broncos (6-5, 0-1) play Pacific (6-6, 1-1) at noon Friday before facing Saint Mary's (4-7, 1-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Pacific has won two of its last three matches, including a 4-0 home victory vs. George Washington Saturday.
The Saint Mary's record is deceiving as all of its losses have come to teams that were ranked among the top 55 in the nation. The Gaels, currently out of the ITA top 75, were ranked as high as No. 44 earlier this spring. They also have the 59th-ranked doubles duo in the nation in Jamie Pawid and Jana McCord.
"We set a lot of our goals for conference play and it's going to be tough," head coach Ben Cabell said. "There are a lot of good teams in the league, led by Pepperdine, but it's also wide open because everyone is pretty good."
Santa Clara opened conference play last month, falling 4-1 at San Diego on Feb. 20, but has won three of four since that match.
Last time out, the Broncos lost 4-3 to then 34th-ranked Denver at home on Saturday. Despite the loss, Daniella Silva earned the WCC women's singles player of the week after snapping the 11-match winning streak of the Pioneers' Bianca Mok.
Silva has a team-high eight dual singles wins and Nabila Farah is second with a 7-3 record.
"The positive is we showed we're good and we can compete with the ranked teams, but we really wanted to win that one," Cabell said about the Denver loss. "Now we have another challenge going back into conference play."
The regular season matches may carry even more weight than in previous years as only the top six of the 10 league teams advance to the WCC Tournament (April 28-30).
The Broncos split with Pacific and Saint Mary's at home last season. Santa Clara downed the Tigers, 4-3, and lost to the Gaels, 4-3.
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