USC disposes of Oregon, Washington State


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After a rough week at home for the USC women’s tennis team, it cashed in on a much needed road trip, beating Oregon (8-9, 1-2) and Washington State (10-9, 0-6).

“I am super proud of the girls,” USC coach Richard Gallien said. “They were very strong and confident. [Oregon and Washington State] are vastly improved and throw in the toughest travel you could have, it was a great trip.”

USC (13-5, 3-2) started the weekend with an easy 7-0 victory against the Ducks (8-9, 1-2) on Friday. Freshman Kaitlyn Christian and junior Alison Ramos highlighted the day with back-to-back wins to start singles play. Ramos took down Pascale Nuebert 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 4 spot, as Christian would then dispatch Julia Metzger 6-0, 6-1 in the next match out of the No. 2 spot.

Senior Maria Sanchez took down No. 116 Pavlina Smatova 7-5, 6-3 in what became one of the closer matches on the day. Right before Sanchez’ bout, senior Cristala Andrews fought off a tiebreaker in the first set to hand Trudie du Toit 7-6 (1), 6-3 defeat on court five.

Sophomore Danielle Lao, ranked No. 26 in the nation, rebounded from last week’s losses with wins against Oregon’s Patricia Skowronski (6-3, 6-3) and Elisabeth Fournire (6-0, 6-0) of Washington State on Saturday.

Senior Lyndsey Kinstler and freshman Hayley Miller each made rare appearances on the singles circuit this weekend to mixed results. Although Miller would fall 6-4, 6-1 to the Washington State’s Jessica Gomez, Kinstler made the most of her singles start by defeating Oregon’s Lana Buttner 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Against the Cougars, Sanchez had another tight contest on court one beating Luda Vasilieva 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (13-11). Vasilieva took the nations’ top-ranked singles player into an uncommon three-set tiebreaker before finally falling after a back-and-forth final set.

Christian and Ramos continued their success against the Cougars, dispatching of Ksenia Googe (6-1, 6-3) and Andjela Kankaras (6-2, 6-1) on court three and four.

In No. 5 singles, Cristala Andrews fought off Olga Musilovich, 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6), recording her second win on the road trip.

Staying outside of California, USC will head to Tempe, then Tucson to continue Pac-10 play against Arizona State and Arizona, before returning home to face No. 6 UCLA at Marks Stadium.