The Northwestern women’s tennis team heads to the Pacific Northwest this weekend to face No. 21 Washington and unranked Portland at the Loyd Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle.

NU coach Claire Pollard said she wants the No. 12 Wildcats (1-1) to build on the strong emotional effort they put forth in last Saturday’s 5-2 loss to No. 4 Duke.

“We worked hard on fitness during the week,” Pollard said. “I think we can avoid the emotional fatigue that hurt us last week by reducing physical fatigue.”

In three prior matches, Washington has never beaten the Cats, and this will be their first time facing Portland (1-0). Pollard said that Washington will be the tougher of the weekend’s two matches.

“They are a very deep team, so every point is critical,” Pollard said, “They are definitely better than their No. 21 ranking shows.”

Freshman Jamie Peisel, who is the team’s No. 3 player and was battling an illness against Duke, agreed with Pollard that the Cats should not take the Huskies lightly.

“I know we can compete with the best in the country,” Peisel said, “but anybody can beat anybody else on a given day.”

Pollard said she is counting on strong performances from all her players, especially Peisel and fellow freshman Cristelle Grier, ranked No. 16 in the nation, as NU will once again be without the services of last year’s top player Marine Piriou. The senior, ranked No. 18 in the nation, has been out for the past two matches due to what Pollard describes as personal issues and Piriou will not take the court this weekend.

Next week will be a busy one for the Cats with three home matches, including a visit from No. 5 North Carolina. Pollard said she wanted to get the most out of practice this week because of the demanding schedule ahead.

“We have a lot coming up in the next three weeks,” she said, “and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to really run them hard.”