The No. 25-ranked OU women’s tennis team will face its first road test this weekend when it competes for a spot at the 2012 USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships starting at noon Friday at UCLA Tennis Center in Los Angeles.

The Sooners will be facing off against St. Mary’sand either Utah or No. 4-ranked UCLA as part of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, which is held at 15 different campuses across the country.

Oklahoma opened its season at home against vastly over-matched Drake and Arkansas-Little Rock. The Sooners dropped only one match the entire day, beating Drake 6-1 and shutting out Arkansas-Little Rock 7-0. Coach David Mullins was happy with his team’s performance and viewed the opening win as a good way to get back in the swing of competition.

The team’s next match, though, was all about winning. Oklahoma hosted a very solid North Texas team Tuesday, just three short days after opening its season, and scraped by with a 4-3 win to advance to 3-0 heading into one of the biggest competitions of the season.

Senior Marie-Pier Huet and sophomore Whitney Ritchie picked up the win at No. 1 doubles for the Sooners, and sophomore Mia Lancaster and freshman Abbi Melrose clinched the doubles point for the Sooners a few minutes later. That point proved to be the difference, as the two teams split the six singles matches.

Whereas Mullins viewed the team’s first day of competition as a glorified warm up, the win over North Texas is definitely a victory the team can hang its hat on.

“Overall I’m happy to get the four points and get out of here with a win,” Mullins said. “I know North Texas will be a good team this year, and this win will help us down the road in the rankings.”

The Sooners enter Friday as the No. 2-seed in Los Angeles and will open play at noon against No. 3-seeded St. Mary’s.