A California trip that begins today for No. 50 Washington State women’s tennis is set for a match against Pac-12 foes No. 2 UCLA (15-1, 3-0 Pac-12) and No. 12 USC (12-4, 3-0 Pac-12).

“This group is completely motivated,” Head Coach Lisa Hart said. “They have been looking forward to this particular weekend for a long time.”

The Cougars are currently 15-5 and 1-3 in Pac-12 play with losses against Arizona State, University of Arizona, and Utah.

“This team continues to impress me,” Hart said. “They don’t stay down for long, constantly looking forward on the next challenge. It is extremely important in athletics to have a short memory, and this particular team is very good at this.”

UCLA is 19-1 all-time against the Cougars, and last year UCLA beat WSU 6-1 in Pullman. UCLA is also currently on a seven-game winning streak since losing to Duke in February. USC is 20-0 against the Cougars since the series between the two teams began in 1994. The Cougars fell to USC 7-0 last year in Pullman.

“We talk a lot about the upcoming opportunities we are fortunate to have,” Hart said. “Without a doubt our opponents from UCLA and USC are great players with high rankings, but they are human just like us. We have very talented players on our team, and if we perform like we are capable of, we can definitely find a way to win.”

No. 106 junior Elizaveta Luzina will face tough competition this weekend when she competes against the top talent in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Luzina and company will face-off against UCLA junior Robin Anderson who is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation and USC Zoe Scandalis who is ranked No. 26.

“There are over 2,600 Division I women’s tennis players, so 106 is a great accomplishment,” Hart said. “However, Liza has her sights set on the NCAA individual championships, and to be selected she will need to be top 64 in the country.  If she continues to perform the way she has been this goal is definitely attainable.”

The Cougars’ match against UCLA will start with doubles at 11:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center followed by singles at 1 p.m. The singles matches will be broadcasted live on Pac-12 Network.

“Two upsets, or even one, would be huge for our program,” Hart said. “On the right day it can absolutely happen, and the great thing is our players believe this can happen, and that is without a doubt the first step to upsets happening.”