The No. 3 Stanford women’s tennis team wanted to send a message to the tennis world on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it was lost in translation along the way.

Looking for an auspicious start to Pacific-10 Conference play and to a tough five-game road trip, the Cardinal faltered in a big way after suffering a surprising 6-1 loss to archrival No. 11 California. Stanford had led the all-time series 58-7 and won the last 12 consecutive meetings with Cal coming into yesterday’s match-up.

Though the score itself says a lot, the match wasn’t as clear-cut as it may seem.

“We had our chances clearly,” Stanford coach Lele Forood said. “We started well in a bunch of those matches and they climbed their way back.”

Despite losing two matches at the Indoors last weekend, Cal refused to give up against Stanford.

“Their players play very consistent, long points and that’s not used in the Indoors,” Forood said. “They took their losses at indoors, but they’re certainly more comfortable outside, especially on their home court today.

“That made for a very different experience for them.”

On the day, Stanford lost three matches in three sets, including sophomore Lindsay Burdette at the number one spot. Serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set against 2005 NCAA singles champion Susie Babos, Burdette would soon fall 7-5 in the final frame.

At number four, senior Celia Durkin fell 6-3 in the third set. Freshman Carolyn McVeigh lost 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.

“We know who their players are for sure,” Forood said. “We knew that we were in for a tough match. I certainly don’t think we expected to lose to them 6-1, that’s for sure.”

In the match, Stanford definitely showed its youth and inexperience at times.

“We’re a young team,” Forood said. “We’re finding out that we have to finish matches a little better.”

Though downplayed by Forood, the Cardinal women also entered the match at a disadvantage with injuries.

“I don’t want to dwell on excuses, but we’ve had a lot of people injured and sick in the last couple weeks,” Forood said. “I don’t want to take the win from them, but it was definitely a factor and our preparation wasn’t what it could’ve been.

“We have to move on and play better,” she added.

Stanford will have its first chances to redeem itself on Friday against No. 43 Washington and Saturday against No. 44 Washington State.

Next weekend, the Cardinal will head down to Los Angeles for another tough stretch in its schedule.

“Going forward, we don’t have that luxury of time, playing in Washington this weekend and Los Angeles next weekend,” Forood said. “We have to find our form in a hurry. That’s what happens sometimes and we have to regroup in a big way and just be tougher.”

The Huskies are led by freshman Venice Chan, who was recently named Pac-10 Player of the Week. Washington is currently 8-1 on the season.

“They’ve got a good group and they’re always a tough match on their home court,” Forood said. “It’s going to be a very challenging next match. We have to be ready to go and play with a lot more intensity than today.”

With the season currently in full swing, the Cardinal has to find its form as soon as possible. If anything, the team must try to resend the message it had tried to send today.

“It was a very important day in our season today,” Forood said. “We have to show how we’re going to respond to it this weekend.”