After a 12-day break, the No. 15 Northwestern women’s tennis team will return to action Saturday in Evanston against No. 11 William and Mary before traveling to Milwaukee on Sunday to face Marquette.

NU coach Claire Pollard said the break was exactly what the team needed after a travel-heavy early schedule, which included 12 matches in a little more than a month.

“As much as you love tennis, if you keep at it every day your enthusiasm level lowers,” Pollard said. “It was refreshing for them to be normal human beings.”

The Cats (7-5, 1-0 Big Ten) went through hard conditioning drills early in the break and then tapered off at the end to leave energy for this weekend’s matches. The team worked at improving its doubles play, which has been a weakness in recent matches.

“We’ve been trying to build up the atmosphere of practice so that the players are more vocal and more supportive of each other,” Pollard said.

Pollard said she is not worried about her team losing any sharpness.

“There’s nothing negative about the break,” Pollard said. “It does nothing but good.”

Freshman Cristelle Grier, ranked No. 6 in the nation, agreed with Pollard, saying the rest had provided the tired team a chance to gather itself before the beginning of the spring season.

Grier, who was ranked No. 16 after the fall season, said she doesn’t expect her rise in the rankings to cause opponents to change their gameplan against her.

“Word gets around pretty quickly in college tennis,” Grier said. “People will have seen the results that I’ve had, and they won’t be that surprised.”

Marquette (1-9) has never beaten the Cats in seven previous matches.

William and Mary (8-3), led by No. 21-ranked Candice Fuchs, beat NU last year 6-1 in their first-ever meeting.

Pollard said the Tribe is just as good as they were a year ago, and pointed to good coaching as the reason.

“We’ve got to be ready ourselves and know that we’ve got a good opportunity,” Pollard said.

No. 11 William & Mary (8-3) at No. 15 NU (7-5, 1-0 Big Ten);

NU at Marquette (1-9)

Saturday; Sunday

Combe Tennis Center; Milwaukee