The University of Wisconsin women’s tennis team is expecting two wins on this weekend’s road trip to the University of Missouri.

The team is set to face Missouri and the University of Oklahoma this Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Missouri’s Green Tennis Center. The team has a lot of confidence heading into this weekend after defeating instate rival, Marquette, in their last match and with the No. 40 doubles team of Elizabeth Carpenter and Angela Chupa breaking their way into the national rankings.

“It feels great,” Carpenter said. “It’s good because we haven’t had a ranked team in a while for Wisconsin tennis. It’s definitely a confidence booster going into the next matches.”

UW head coach, Brian Fleishman, is proud of their accomplishments.

“These two are my best doubles players to begin with, so it’s good for them to be playing with each other,” he said. “They played extremely well to get to that ranking — they’ve got to maintain that ranking, that’s the tough part. Getting the ranking is sometimes easier. They just got to go out and play like they know how and execute, and they’ll do fine.”

The rest of the team will have to step up its game, though, or the two may have to separate and start working with the other players to help the other doubles teams.

“Depending on how this weekend goes, we might have to split them up if the team is not holding up their end of the deal,” Fleishman said.

Carpenter isn’t worried, though.

“We’ve really been focusing on doubles a lot since the beginning, and it’s all coming together for all of our teams right now,” she said.

The Badgers didn’t start their winter season as well as they had hoped, dropping to 2-6 before last week’s win against Marquette. Missouri fell to 4-4 on the year after a loss to Minnesota last week, and Oklahoma moved to 3-3 after a loss to Purdue in its last match.

Wisconsin has faced a lot of tough competition so far this season and hopes playing those matches will help through the rest of the season. With those learning experiences behind them, the team is looking forward to getting onto the road and onto the courts against these unfamiliar teams.

“It’s great because we don’t know who we’re playing so I think we go out there with a lot of confidence and just really want to play well on the road, come home, and get back to business,” Carpenter said.

Coach Fleishman is also looking forward to the trip.

“The two teams we’re playing are winnable matches, it just depends on how practice went this week, and I think it went pretty well,” he said. “I’m expecting big things this weekend.

We’re a good on-the-road team. It’s a controlled environment so I think the team responds well on the road.”

Even with this season’s learning experiences, the recent win, a nationally ranked doubles team and a solid week of practice, Wisconsin is not looking past their opponents.

“I expect some tough matches,” Carpenter said. “I think it’s going to be close, especially against Missouri — they’re ranked right around the same area as we are. It’s going to be a tough match, but I think we have a good chance.”

Fleishman is even more assured of their chances than Carpenter.

“I’m expecting two wins,” he said. “If we go in and play like we know how and with a lot of confidence, we’ll do fine this weekend.”