This post was updated May 10 at 12:38 a.m. 

Only two Division I women’s tennis teams have at least five players ranked in singles and at least four teams ranked in doubles – North Carolina and Texas.

The last time the Longhorns made the trek to Westwood in January, food poisoning stymied their ability to fully display their litany of nationally recognized athletes.

On Friday, however, they will take all six of their top-125 players – two more than the Bruins have – onto the Los Angeles Tennis Center courts with far more at stake than five months prior.

No. 8 seed UCLA women’s tennis (20-5, 9-1 Pac-12) will welcome No. 9 seed Texas (23-5, 12-1 Big 12) for its final home match of the season in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA championships. The last time the Bruins and the Longhorns faced off was in nonconference play in January, but Friday’s match will have the two teams competing for a ticket to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the Elite Eight.

“Obviously, they’ve had a great record, … they’re a very talented team,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “I think almost everyone is ranked in the ITA ranking, so a lot of talent. It’s going to be a battle.”

In January, the Longhorns had to bench two players due to illness at the start of singles, handing the Bruins a 3-0 advantage after winning the doubles point. UCLA ended up winning the match 5-2 with only three played out singles matches.

Sophomores Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Tian Fangran earned singles wins for the Bruins in January, and Lutkemeyer said, above all else, the match taught her to be ready for unknown circumstances.

“Regardless of what happens, there can be lots of surprises,” Lutkemeyer said. “We all got to stay focused and focus on the things that we can control, so we’ll be doing that on Friday.”

Texas switched its top-court players between its first and second round matches against Harvard and Georgia Tech, respectively, meaning the No. 32-ranked Tian may not rematch with No. 30 Sabina Zeynalova after their bout in January.

UCLA has swept both of its prior tournament opponents, Denver and Texas Tech. While Texas swept its first opponent, unseeded Georgia Tech gave the Longhorns a run for their money in the second round, logging three match points before Texas could clinch a Sweet 16 berth. All three of the Yellow Jackets’ points came from singles wins, resulting in two of six Longhorns lacking a singles win in the tournament so far.

On the doubles side, UCLA has taken both doubles points in the tournament as well as the doubles point against Texas in January. Doubles teams look different for both squads since then, and the Longhorns switched up their doubles pairings between their opening-round matches.

The Pac-12’s doubles team of the year – Tian and junior Elise Wagle – did not begin playing together until the match after the win over Texas. Tian said film sessions have given the team a look into the Longhorns’ play style, such as their tendency to vary their shots and use lobs.

“We’re really confident going into the match, focusing on the things we’ve been working on in practice and just out-compete them,” Tian said.

The Bruins got the chance to practice against members of UCLA men’s tennis as well to give the doubles teams in particular the chance to see new opponents outside of intra-team scrimmages.

Sampras Webster said her team has done all the preparation they need to face Texas and now need to focus on handling the pressure of playing for the Elite Eight spot.

“It’s going to come down to who plays the bigger points,” Sampras Webster said “It’s a lot on it to go to the Elite Eight, so it’s going to be very mentally and physically taxing. It’s just getting everyone to be able to handle the emotion, hopefully take the emotion out and just play tennis.”