It was an epic weekend for the top-ranked Stanford women’s tennis team, as it defeated No. 17 UCLA, 6-0, and the No. 4 Southern California, 5-2. The weekend at home was marked by bad weather, penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct and fiercely-fought singles matches with thrilling comebacks.

Stanford (9-0) got off to a rocky start Friday against USC (5-1), losing the doubles point for the first time this season.

Senior Amber Liu and sophomore Celia Durkin lost, 8-6, at the No. 2 doubles spot and junior Theresa Logar and sophomore Whitney Deason lost, 8-3, at the No. 3 doubles spot. Stanford’s No. 2-ranked duo of senior Alice Barnes and junior Anne Yelsey beat USC’s Luana Magnani and Lindsey Nelson at the No. 1 doubles’ spot, 8-6, but it wasn’t enough for the Card.

And the Cardinal’s predicament only grew worse in singles. An ailing Barnes withdrew from the match following doubles, so everyone but Liu (at the No. 1 position) had to play one spot higher than they had anticipated.

Stanford players lost the first sets in four of the six matches. The winners were Durkin at the No. 5 spot and freshman Jessica Nguyen, who stepped in at the last minute to win at the No. 6 spot.

It began to drizzle while four of the courts began their second sets, and soon the match was postponed until Sunday due to the wetness of the courts.

All in all, Stanford’s chances for victory looked slim, as coach Lele Forood acknowledged.

“We haven’t had to do something like this for a long time,” said Forood. “There’s not much wiggle room. We will have to be gutsy right from the first ball.”

On Sunday — with a lot of determination and a match won by default — the Cardinal did not disappoint Forood.

On the second court, ITA-ranked No. 3 Amanda Fink of USC led Logar 5-3 in the second set when Fink forfeited a game for committing her fourth line call violation of the day. In the next game, the umpire judged that Fink again finked — incorrectly calling Logar’s ball out — and handed the match to Logar on grounds of unsportsmanlike conduct.

“That was lucky,” Deason said. “Not in terms of whether or not it was deserved — it was — but because we got a point up on the scoreboard at a key time.”

Because Logar had only won four games to Fink’s five, her court was cleared and several Stanford players assumed that Logar had lost. This, combined with Magnani’s defeat of Deason on the fourth court (7-5, 6-3), inspired the squad to fight harder.

“I couldn’t see what had happened on Theresa’s court and just assumed that

Fink had won,” Yelsey said. “I was under the impression that we had to win all the remaining matches to win the match. I thought we could pull it off, though, especially because Amber and I had the momentum in the third sets after coming back in the second sets.”

Durkin finished next, beating Carine Vermeulen, 7-5, 7-5. Liu and Yelsey won their second sets while Nguyen dropped hers, so all three moved on to third sets with the dual-match score tied between the two schools at 2-2.

Yelsey never let USC’s Dianne Matias pull ahead of her in the third set and finished next with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. Liu played a tense and tough third set, ultimately prevailing 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 over USC’s Nelson to clinch the match for Stanford.

Determination seemed to define Stanford’s play this weekend, as the Cardinal also pulled out a deceptively close match against UCLA (5-2) on Saturday, 6-0. Though the final score was lopsided, three of the singles matches went to three sets, two sets went to tie-breakers and several players had to battle back from substantial deficits in their sets.

Saturday’s UCLA match began with singles play, due to the threat of rain. Thus, when Stanford finished its singles sweep of the Bruins, there was no longer a need to play a potentially tie-breaking doubles point.

The singles points were not easily won, however. Both Liu and Durkin dropped their first sets, 2-6 and 4-6 respectively, while Yelsey won her first set in a tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, Barnes and Logar won their first sets 6-3. Deason also definitively defeated her opponent, 6-1.

Liu and Durkin struck back in their second sets, 6-4 and 7-6 respectively, thereby forcing third sets. However, Barnes dropped her second set and was forced into a third as well. Because three matches were still in the air, Barnes’ loss ensured the dual match would be undecided at the conclusion of two sets.

Deason won her second set, 6-4, earning Stanford’s first singles point. Logar was next with a 6-3 win and Yelsey easily won her second set, 6-2. In the third set, Liu swept Riza Zalameda to clinch the dual match win. Barnes and Durkin both won their third sets 6-4 to close out the sweep.

Despite the lopsided final score, Stanford said it had been a close match against an underrated opponent.

“We’re happy that we performed this well against a team that is not 17th in the country,” Forood said.

After the conclusion of the UCLA match Sunday, the team remained positive about its fighting ability. Liu emphasized that it is impressive to win after not starting a match well.

“It shows a lot of character to be working this hard, beating players when we’re behind,” she said.

The team was more openly upbeat following the win against USC.

“This will go down in the archives as one of our great wins,” assistant coach Frankie Brennan told the team after the match.

“It may only be February, but this will definitely be one of our most important wins of the season — if not the second-most important one when the year is over,” said Forood, alluding to the NCAA Championship match in May.