Women of Troy welcome another top-10 opponent


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With a dominant win last Friday at Oregon, the No. 12 USC women’s tennis team now returns home, ready for its rematch with the No. 9 Baylor Bears today.

The Women of Troy (8-4) have played high-quality opponents all season, and today’s dual meet will be no different. This is the fifth time in nearly three weeks that the Women of Troy will face a top-10 team.

Rematch · Junior Maria Sanchez and junior Lyndsay Kinstler were unable to top Baylor earlier this season, falling 8-4 in their match. - Geo Tu | Daily Trojan

The last time USC took on Baylor (9-2) was in February at the ITA National Team Indoor championships in Wisconsin, where USC fell to the Bears 5-2, but the Women of Troy will get to challenge the Bears at home again in this match.

When they competed against each other last month, the Women of Troy’s nationally ranked No. 3 singles player, junior Maria Sanchez, lost her only dual singles match of the season to Baylor’s No. 8 Lenka Broosova 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Sanchez currently boasts a 10-1 singles record and hopes to defeat Broosova to avenge her only loss.

“The team morale is really good heading into this week. We’re all fired up to play Baylor again,” Sanchez said.

Meanwhile, Baylor is coming into the match having just beat Texas Tech 6-1 and Iowa State 7-0 last week. In addition to Broosova, Baylor has four other nationally ranked singles players: No. 41 Nina Secerbegovic, No. 53 Csilla Borsanyi, No. 82 Jelena Stanivuk and No. 98 Taylor Ormond.

Last time the two teams met, No. 21 sophomore Alison Ramos of USC was able to take down Borsanyi 7-5, 7-6, but Secerbegovic and Ormond posted wins over USC’s freshmen No. 22 Danielle Lao and No. 91 Valeria Pulido, 6-3, 6-3 and 6-4, 6-2, respectively.

In doubles, Baylor’s Broosova and Borsanyi team up as the No. 11 duo. They took down USC’s Sanchez and senior Lyndsay Kinstler 8-4 in the teams’ last meeting.

USC is 0-2 all-time against Baylor, falling 4-3 to the Bears in 2006 at Marks Stadium.

USC’s lineup for the match has not yet been determined. The match will start at 1:30 p.m. at Marks Stadium.