Women’s tennis is looking to prove itself among the elite when it travels to Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday to take on No. 17 Harvard.

The 34th-ranked Illini are 0-2 against ranked opponents this spring, dropping matches to No. 18 Tennessee 4-3 and No. 30 Wake Forest 5-2.

Harvard will be the Illini’s highest ranked opponent thus far. Harvard boasts five ranked singles players – No. 27 Courtney Bergman, No. 45 Susan Lingman, No. 93 Preethi Mukundan, No. 104 Elisa O’Riain and No. 123 Celia Durkin.

Along with their strong singles lineup, Harvard has one ranked doubles team, 48th-ranked Bergman and O’Riain.

Harvard comes into Saturday’s match with a 3-1 record, defeating No. 16 Texas A&M;, Wisconsin and Boston University. The Crimson’s only loss came at the hands of the No. 1 team in the country, Stanford, 5-2. Before taking on the Illini, Harvard hosts No. 21 Notre Dame on Friday.

For the Illini to be victorious, assistant coach JoAnne Russell said the Illini must do two things, the first is to win the doubles point.

“That has been our goal all season, to win every doubles point, which we have done, except for one match,” Russell said.

In the last 18 matches when the Illini have won the doubles point, they have won the match 16 times.

Russell said the second key for the Illini is to have everyone show up.

“We need each of our players to compete at her normal levels or higher,” Russell said. “Nobody can have a low-intensity or sluggish match. If we have these keys, we’ll win the match.”

One thing the Illini have going for them is senior Cynthya Goulet. She is a perfect 5-0 this season, playing at the No. 1 seed. She has knocked off three top-100 players and will likely go up against No. 27 Bergman.

“It was important for me to do well at the No. 3 spot last year,” Goulet said. “This year I’m very confident and I believe I can play at the higher spot.”

In the two teams’ last meeting, the Illini defeated Harvard 5-2 last spring at Atkins Tennis Center. The Crimson return all but one player from last year’s squad, while the Illini only return three in the starting lineup – Goulet, sophomore Emily Wang and junior Brianna Knue.