No. 3 USC drops tight match to rivals

The No. 3 USC women’s tennis team were upset by their crosstown rivals in the UCLA Bruins in Westwood on Wednesday .

In a match that lasted almost five hours, the Bruins defeated USC 4-3, to drop them to 10-2 overall on the season.

The Women of Troy had gathered a great deal of momentum going into their clash against the Bruins, riding a six-game winning streak and not having lost since early February at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

Things started off on a positive note in doubles for the Women of Troy, as the all-freshman pair of Gabby Smith and Madison Westby put away UCLA’s Terri Fleming and Kristin Wiley by a score of 8-4.

Unfortunately, junior Giuliana Olmos and senior Zoë Scandalis fell 3-8 to UCLA’s Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips, the second-ranked duo in the country.

Sophomore Zoë Katz and senior Sabrina Santamaria dropped a tough 7-8 loss to Robin Anderson and Chanelle Van Nguyen and conceded the doubles point to the Bruins.

Doubles have been a slight struggle in an overall phenomenal season so far for the Women of Troy, and head coach Richard Gallien stressed that it was an area where the team must improve.

“We haven’t played great doubles, 1-2-3, for a while, so we put ourselves in bit of a hole by losing,” he said. “It’s easy to say that you’re just going to win the doubles, but had we won them today, we would have won the match.”

Santamaria rebounded immediately from the disappointing doubles defeat and swept past McPhillips in singles, 6-2, 6-0, to knot the score at one apiece, but Olmos could not pull off the upset against the third-ranked Anderson, falling in straight sets, 4-6, 4-6. Then Kaitlin Ray’s 5-7, 2-6 win over USC’s Smith put the Women of Troy on the brink of defeat with the score at 3-1, UCLA.

But USC was not about to go quietly. Westby battled to a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Harrison to make the Bruins sweat, and freshman Meredith Xepoleas soon finished off Fleming, 6-2, 7-6, to complete a stunning comeback.

All eyes then shifted to the deciding match between experienced seniors in Scandalis and Van Nguyen, which was entering its third set.

Scandalis had dropped the first, 2-6, before taking the next, 6-3. Van Nguyen raced out to a 2-5 lead in the deciding set and looked set to finish USC off, but Scandalis dug in and pulled off the day’s second Houdini act, managing to tie the final set at five each.

A miraculous victory was sadly not on the cards, however, and Scandalis eventually fell, 2-6, 6-3, 6-7, sending the Women of Troy home with a loss.

Though the end result was disappointing, Gallien praised the team’s spirit after the players found themselves in a deep hole in the early going.

“This is a team that really fights well with great character,” he said. “[The loss] is painful today, but we have a lot more tennis to play.”

Next up, the team returns home next Wednesday after three consecutive road games to face San Diego State.

USC now looks to start another winning streak, and the players await their chance at payback on April 16, when UCLA visits Marks Stadium.

“Hopefully we give [San Diego State] a good kicking and just get back on track,” Gallien said. “I don’t see this group hanging their heads for too long.”