Women of Troy sweep at ITA Regionals

USC’s women’s tennis team swept the title matches at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships on Monday.

Senior Zoë Scandalis, who is ranked No. 15 in the nation, shone in her hometown of San Diego, not dropping a single set en route to bringing home the singles crown.

Scandalis represents the third USC player in the last five years to win the singles title but did so in unorthodox fashion. After defeating players from Hawai’i, LMU, SDSU, UCLA and her own teammate, freshman Meredith Xepoleas, in the semifinals, Scandalis earned herself a spot in the championship match against Pepperdine’s No. 20 Lorraine Guillermo.

Guillermo had beaten opponents from SDSU, UCLA, Grand Canyon, Hawai’i and USC (junior Giuliana Olmos) to pave her way to the championship. Though Guillermo had proven herself a worthy opponent, she withdrew from the title match due to illness and forfeited the championship to Scandalis.

With the title, Scandalis, who went 23-11 in singles play last year, punched her ticket to the ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships in Flushing, New York, at the beginning of November. It will be Scandalis’ third time competing at ITA National Indoors. In 2012, she fell to Tennessee’s Brynn Boren, who later transferred to USC, in the first round.

Scandalis benefited from Guillermo pulling out of the singles match, but the Pepperdine player gave it her all in the doubles match earlier that day against a USC squad.

Freshman Gabby Smith was paired up with Olmos for the first time, and the duo had great success together.

Olmos, the more experienced of the two, said it was difficult adjusting to a new partner.

“It was hard at the beginning,” Olmos said. “We were just trying to play the way we did in practice in the tournament and just trying to transfer that. I think the first couple of rounds were a little harder because we were just getting used to each other’s style and our personalities blending together. We get along really well on the court so that helps out a lot.”

Though Olmos said the first few rounds were the hardest, the scores don’t show it — the duo beat opponents 8-4, 8-3 and 8-3 in the first three rounds after a bye.

In the semifinals, the format shifted from one eight-game set to two six-game sets. This change didn’t shake the Women of Troy at all, though. Smith and Olmos went up against their own teammates, senior Gabriella DeSimone and Xepoleas, in the semifinals. The match was much tighter than any of the previous ones for Smith and Olmos, and they eventually prevailed in a third-set tiebreak, 6-1, 6-7 (4), 1-0 (10-8).

This set up a final clash between the Women of Troy and the Pepperdine squad of Guillermo and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai, in which USC came out on top after two extremely close sets, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1).

Olmos said her chemistry with Smith helped lift them in the title match.

“I think it was really helpful that we’re always really, really positive,” Olmos said. “Even if one of us starts dropping and not playing as well, we’re able to pick the other one up and help the other one really play better and make sure we stay really positive and on track.”

This year marked the first time that the Women of Troy have swept the ITA Regional Tournament since 2010, when then-sophomore Danielle Lao won the singles title and Valeria Pulido and Alison Ramos won the doubles championship.

Though Olmos, Scandalis and Smith stole the show at the tournament, a number of other Women of Troy were in the mix as well.

USC had six players in singles competition, and all but one made it to the quarterfinals of the tournament. Because five of the six quarterfinalists were Women of Troy, four of them were pitted against each other. Scandalis was the only USC player who was matched up against someone from another school: UCLA’s Kaitlin Ray.

Before falling to her teammate Scandalis, Xepoleas worked her way through the previous four rounds, highlighted by a win over UCLA’s Kyle McPhillips, who’s ranked No. 27 in the nation. She beat out her teammate, sophomore Zoë Katz, in straight sets in the quarters, before falling to Scandalis in the semis.

Meanwhile, No. 38 Olmos beat her own doubles partner, Smith, in the quarterfinals. It was a tight match, with Olmos coming out on top, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, before falling to Guillermo in the semis.

Olmos had a tough time playing against Smith in singles after building such a camaraderie in doubles competition together.

“It was definitely very weird because it was a tournament,” Olmos said. “We play each other in practice all the time and it’s really, not playful, but there’s not a lot of stress. But during changeovers we wanted to talk to each other, but we had to stay really serious. It was very competitive, but we also tried to be very civil to each other, because we’re teammates, really good friends off the court and doubles partners.”

Of the three USC doubles teams to enter competition, two of them made it all the way to the semifinals and were forced to face off against each other.

Next up for the Women of Troy is the Kramer Club Intercollegiate in Palos Verdes, California, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.