After an inspiring win against No. 5 Arizona last weekend, the No. 3 Stanford women’s swimming and diving team should have the confidence to perform well against its talented Southern California rivals this weekend.

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Mehmet Inonu

Senior Laura Davis leads the No. 3 Cardinal in the IM events as they head to L.A. Stanford takes on No. 7 UCLA and No. 12 USC in two of the final dual meets of the season.

On Friday, Stanford heads to Los Angeles to take on No. 7 UCLA and then faces No. 12 Southern California on Saturday.

Head coach Lea Maurer was proud of her team’s performance against Arizona but thinks the competitions this weekend could be even better.

“At the meet this weekend I thought we did a great job regrouping after each race to prepare for the next one,” Maurer said. “I thought we had a great team effort in terms of enthusiasm, support and focus. Something we need to work on is to execute the meet the way we did this weekend but look for faster times and put tougher expectations on ourselves.”

Dana Kirk, one of the team’s senior captains, knows that defeating both foes will not be an easy feat. In what could be one of the more exciting races of the weekend, Kirk goes head-to-head with UCLA senior Kim Vandenberg in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. Vandenberg and Kirk have posted the nation’s third and fourth best times, respectively, in the 200-yard butterfly.

“UCLA and USC are always a challenge and facing them in their home pools will only add to that atmosphere,” Kirk said. “But as a team we are stronger and deeper than we have been in several years, with the sophomore class in particular making heads turn around the country.”

Kirk referred to the recent performances of sophomores Brooke Bishop and Elizabeth Durot, who have both had breakout years. Bishop is positioning herself as one of the nation’s top sprint freestylers and backstrokers, posting the nation’s fourth top time in both the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes. Durot was named Swimmer of the Meet at the Speedo Cup Invitational in November following her wins in the 200-, 500- and 1,650-yard freestyles.

Durot is part of a fierce contingency of distance swimmers, which include juniors Desiree Stahley, Lauren Costella and Morgan Hentzen. These women are likely to be relied upon to set the tone in both meets with the 1,000-yard freestyle, the opening individual event.

Other possible strong Cardinal performers are seniors Kristen Caverly and Laura Davis in the IM events and sophomore Erica Liu in the breaststrokes.

A deep and versatile freshmen class contributes as well. In the diving well, junior Cassidy Krug should continue to lead the Cardinal against strong USC and UCLA diving teams.

This weekend marks the last string of dual meets before the season ender against California on Feb. 11, and Kirk hopes to learn from this weekend to prepare for the upcoming end-of-season meets.

“Personally, I am looking at this meet as another chance to practice different race strategies and to see our team practice winning, which will come in handy at our dual meet against Cal and beyond,” she said.