By Roy Elia 

WALLA WALLA - If coach Jeff Northam was seeking a barometer of how good his No.15 nationally-ranked Whitman men's tennis team is, he should look no further than the schedule he has assembled for this weekend's Whitman Quad.

Matches are scheduled Friday through Sunday at both the Bratton Tennis Center and Whitman's outdoor courts - weather permitting.

The No. 7 regionally-ranked Missionaries, who enter the weekend 4-0 in the conference and 5-1 overall, begin what promises to be a challenging three-day stretch on Friday at noon when it takes on Northwest Conference rival Pacific.

Whitman will face No. 6 nationally-ranked Trinity one hour after its tussle with the Boxers.

The Missionaries oppose powerhouse and No. 3 nationally-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Whitman ends its portion of the Quad schedule Sunday at 8 a.m. against No. 12 nationally-ranked University of California-Santa Cruz.

Pacific comes to town 2-0 in the NWC and 3-1 overall. The Boxers are coming off a league sweep of the Tacoma schools last weekend and opened their season Feb. 13 by knocking off NCAA Division I Portland State.

"We only play them once, so it is a critical match for us," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said. "The team that wins this match will likely host the conference tournament. I've been emphasizing to our team that this is our most important match of the weekend."

Trinity is 8-4 this season and has won five of its last seven matches.

"We see them every fall at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (event)," Northam said. "Last fall, their No. 1 player defeated Andrew La Cava and our No. 1 doubles team at the time, James Rivers and La Cava, beat their No. 1 doubles team.

"Outside of the conference, we see them more than any team in the nation," Northam said.

In the last regular season meeting between the two teams, at the 2011 Stag-Hen Classic in Claremont, Calif., the Missionaries upset then No. 9 nationally-ranked Trinity.

C-M-S, which placed third in last year's national tourney, is off to a 4-0 start and will be competing its first head-to-head contest since Feb. 22 when it opened Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Association play by shutting out Caltech, 9-0.

"They have everybody back and more," Northam said.

The Stags defeated Whitman, 7-2, last season in Hawaii. The Missionaries "had match points at No. 6 singles," Northam recalled, but were unable to achieve the victory.

Whitman and UC-Santa Cruz have exchanged home victories against one another the last two seasons. The Banana Slugs posted an 8-1 triumph last year while the Missionaries registered a 6-3 win at the Bratton Tennis Center in 2012.

"That was our biggest win of the year by far," Northam said. "That propelled us to eighth in the nation.

"We're ecstatic about it," Northam said of the upcoming Quad. "We're looking forward to playing at a national level. This will be the first time in 10 years we've hosted a weekend of national competition."