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After weeks of rainouts and cancelled practices, the No. 11 women’s tennis team was finally able to take to the courts against the Bay Area schools this weekend and received mixed results.

Playing its first matches in nearly two weeks, UCLA fell to No. 1 Stanford, 6-1 Friday before bouncing back on Saturday to soundly defeat No. 17 Cal, 6-1.

“It was difficult to play a top team like Stanford after having almost six days off from tennis,” freshman Elizabeth Lumpkin said. “It would have helped for us to have a little more time to practice, but obviously we have no control over that.”

What the Bruins did have control over was their doubles play which was anchored by Riza Zalameda and Daniela Bercek, ranked No. 3 nationally.

The tandem dispatched of Stanford’s top duo of Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette 9-8 (8) as the Bruins were able to swipe the doubles point away from the Cardinal.

“I was really proud that we got that doubles point,” Zalameda said. “It was really big for boosting our confidence.”

However, the Bruins were unable to carry that momentum into the singles matches as they were overcome by Stanford‘s deep and talented lineup.

Once again, UCLA was forced to juggle its own lineup due to an injury when No. 3 senior Sarah Gregg sustained a minor strain to her hamstring in warm ups.

But even had there not been an untimely lineup change, the Bruins knew that defeating the Cardinal would have been a tall task.

“We didn’t play as well as we could have, but we weren’t too disappointed,” Zalameda said.

“You have to give Stanford a ton of credit, they are the number one team in the nation. It was definitely a dose of reality. Hopefully now that we have seen them play, we can put more pressure on them when they come to our court,” he continued.

It did not take long, however, for the Bruins to put the Stanford match behind them as they handily defeated the Golden Bears just a day later.

“We wanted to redeem ourselves and regain our confidence,” Zalameda said. “We knew that we could handle them as long as we executed. We didn’t have to play unbelievably well, just within our level.”

With that in mind, UCLA came out of the gates swinging, sweeping the doubles point away from Cal before taking five of six singles matches.

The Bruins’ only loss came in the No. 1 spot with No. 38 Bercek losing to No. 7 Suzy Babos 7-5, 6-2.

“We took care of business,” Lumpkin said. “I think it was important for us to win that match and to not have it be too close to show that we could come right back after playing Stanford and still beat another good team.”

With what looks to be the first sunny period in weeks forecasted in Los Angeles, the Bruins will now be able to return to practice uninhibited in preparation for a showdown with cross-town rival USC, which, barring rain, will take place Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.