Playing nationally ranked teams has been nothing out of the ordinary for the U women’s tennis team.

However, playing consistently well against them has been the problem. Last weekend, the Utes played a very good TCU team, and were crushed 7-0.

The Utes will be playing two conference opponents this weekend in Las Vegas, and both of the teams are nationally ranked.

“We are confident about this week’s matches,” said coach John Tsumas. “We have been playing many nationally ranked teams and I think we have learned a lot from our loses.”

Utah may have learned a lot from its losses, but still may be overmatched when it plays two teams who are on a tear.

The first contest will be against No. 39 San Diego State. The Aztecs have been playing extremely well over the past few weeks, as they have upset No. 18 Notre Dame and also defeated No. 41 Kansas State.

The Aztecs are currently sporting the Mountain West Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week, in Silvia Tornier.

The second team the Utes will play will be the No. 17 UNLV Rebels, who will be an even tougher draw than the Aztecs.

UNLV climbed 10 spots over the past week after defeating No. 30 Indiana and Penn. The Rebels have only lost two matches overall this season.

Those losses came against two top-5 teams, No. 2 Wake Forest and No. 5 Stanford.

These two matches will be very tough for the Utes to compete in, as they have not yet done well against teams ranked among the top 50.