Pac-10 play is finally here. With the defeat of Hawaii (1-7) on Wednesday, the No. 11 Stanford women’s tennis team (7-0) travels down to Los Angeles to face the No. 4 UCLA Bruins (9-1) on Friday and the No. 10 USC Women of Troy (7-2) i

n two non-counting conference matches.

Before they could think about Pac-10 rivals, the Cardinal had one last opponent to defeat. Hawaii came to the Farm to play a match rescheduled from January due to rain, and fortunately the sun was out in full force. Stanford swept through the doubles matches, dropping a combined five games, to go up 1-0.

The nation’s No. 2 duo of junior Hilary Barte and senior Lindsay Burdette won 8-1 in a true display of their talent as a tandem, finishing only moments behind Stanford’s No. 3 team of sophomore Veronica Li and junior Carolyn McVeigh, who also won 8-1. The freshmen were not far behind, as Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan recorded an 8-3 win for Stanford’s sixth doubles sweep on the season.

“Lindsay and I felt like we had it under control the whole time,” Barte said. “We’ve been playing really well recently and I think everyone played really well today.”

Hawaii proved no match for Stanford in singles as well. Only the Rainbow Wahine’s Katarina Poljokov and Alyssa Nafarret were able to get within three games of winning a set. The rest was simply Stanford domination, highlighted by McVeigh’s 6-1, 6-0 win and junior Jennifer Yen’s 6-0, 6-1 win.

With little rest after their match, the women fly down to southern California today as the last remaining undefeated Pac-10 team, to prepare for a more competitive part of the season. This weekend’s matches, however, will not count toward conference standings, but will matter when playoff seeding is considered. Beyond that, the Cardinal wants to see how it compares against the nation’s best programs.

“I hope we see how we match up against both teams,” Barte said. “They’re top-10 in the country and I hope it opens our eyes as to just how good we are. We want to come out of there victorious, but obviously you can’t control how they’re going to play.”

With Stanford’s absence at the ITA National Indoor Championships this year, match play against California schools has been scarce, but this serves to work both for and against the Cardinal. While the Stanford women are unsure how they measure up, their opponents are equally as wary about a Stanford team they know nothing about.

“We don’t have anything to lose by going down there,” Barte said. “They’re going to feel a lot of pressure. They haven’t seen our team this year and they don’t know what to expect, so we’re going to go down there and blitz them.”

As far as road trips go, the visit to the L.A. schools is as nice as they come. With the southern Californian sun and the history of talent both schools have, the area proves to be great for tennis.

“It’s really one of our best trips,” said head coach Lele Forood. “It’s nice to go down there. You stay in one place. You don’t have to move around between playing the schools. It’s a great atmosphere. The courts at UCLA are huge and SC has been pretty fun these past few years.”

UCLA has had the more successful season so far, but only marginally. With one loss on the year coming against California at the National Team Indoors, the rest of its record has been spotless. The Bruins’ top player Yasmin Schnack is ranked No. 5 in the nation, with two teammates ranked No. 43 and No. 48 behind her. In doubles, they have the No. 11 team of Andrea Remynse and Schnack. The two biggest wins for UCLA this season came at Indoors, where it upset then-No. 6 Miami and then-No. 4 Florida.

USC is only a few steps behind, but has faced a remarkably tough schedule. With only two losses to its name to once-top-ranked Duke and then-No. 5 Baylor, the Women of Troy have proven they deserve to be among the top teams in the country. USC has faced only ranked opponents this season, with the lowest-ranked opponent being No. 65 San Diego State. The Women of Troy’s highest-ranked individual player is Maria Sanchez, No. 3 in the nation. Right behind her are Alison Ramos at No. 19, Danielle Lao at No. 31 and Valeria Pulido at No. 51.

Forood is only happy for these two team’s successes. While it obviously means a greater challenge for her team, it also represents a major step up for the Pac-10 and its recognition on the national level.

“[At Indoors,] we were hoping that our conference would show up and they certainly did,” Forood said. “Cal’s at [No.] 3, UCLA’s at [No.] 4, USC’s at [No.] 10, and so that’s important for our conference. It’s important for all of us that we prove our conference is the strongest one again.”

Stanford plays UCLA on Friday at 1:30 p.m. before facing USC on Saturday at 12 p.m.