The No. 65 UCSB women’s tennis team plays back-to-back-to-back over the holiday weekend, starting with No. 36 St. Mary’s tomorrow, then at San Francisco on Sunday and at Santa Clara on Monday. The Gauchos are 1-4 and still looking for their first road win of the season.

UCSB, which will return home on Feb. 25, plays three matches in three days for the only time this year.

“We’ve been doing a lot of fitness training so everybody’s in pretty good shape,” senior Sofia Novak said. “Nobody’s worried about not getting through the three days, it’s more important to play good tennis for three days.”

St. Mary’s (2-2) defeated UCSB last year by a score of 5-2 but Novak says the pressure is on the Gaels this weekend.

“St. Mary’s is gonna be tough for us, but since they’re ranked higher, everybody’s gonna play pretty loose,” Novak said. “There’s no pressure which really gives us more of an edge … and then Sunday and Monday are definitely matches in our favor.”

Those are also rematches from last year when Santa Barbara beat USF (1-2) 7-0 but lost to Santa Clara (4-2) 4-3 in its season opener. After winning the doubles point for the first time last week, the Gauchos will stick with the same combinations: senior Natalia Lozano and freshman April Scatliffe at No. 1, Novak and junior Erica Cano at No. 2 and senior Jordan Dockendorf and sophomore Kiersten Meehan at No. 3.

All three matches have an 11 a.m. start time.

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