Women of Troy take on Oregon and Washington


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Making its first-ever trips to Colorado and Utah this past weekend, the USC women’s tennis team came out victorious after notching back-to-back 7-0 sweeps and now they head home for a four-game homestand in Pac-12 play.

USC (14-2, 3-0) is set to face off against two conference foes this weekend, starting with Oregon at 1:30 p.m. on Friday and the No. 22 Washington Huskies Saturday at noon.

Building off of momentum from easy wins last week, the Women of Troy will once again need the bottom of their lineup to step up and provide the type of support that has been commonplace over the past few weeks.

Against the Utes, USC used the 4-6 positions to secure its landslide victory as senior Alison Ramos started singles with a punctuating win in the sixth slot, followed by a win from freshman Gabriella DeSimone on court 5 and a comeback victory by Kaitlyn Christian 5-7, 6-0, 6-0.

Facing Colorado, the Women of Troy duplicated their strong performance from early in the weekend, storming past the Buffaloes, first dominating doubles and then sweeping singles. Once again, Ramos started off the show with a win on court 6 and the rest of the USC squad followed in unison with five consecutive victories to end the match.

The two victories last weekend allowed the Women of Troy to head back to Marks Stadium with a chance for coach Richard Gallien to secure his 300th career victory as USC’s head coach at the place where it all started.

On top of that milestone, USC now has four players who have topped the 20-win mark this season. Led by freshman Zoe Scandalis and her 27-7 record, the Women of Troy also boast fellow freshman Sabrina Santamaria at 24-5 along with Christian and junior Danielle Lao with 22 and 21 wins, respectively.

With this strong core, along with the aforementioned strong bottom of the lineup that USC has, the Women of Troy will look to continue their trend of sweeping inferior opponents as the Ducks roll to town Friday. Without a top-100 player, Oregon (9-5, 0-4) will try to break their winless record over USC, which currently stands at 0-18.

On Saturday, the Huskies (6-7, 0-4) are coming off of back-to-back losses to Arizona and Arizona State and will seek to rebound against a strong USC squad. With No. 20 senior Denise Dy leading the Huskies’ attack, Scandalis should be tested on court 1, which could amount to Washington’s only victory of the day.

As long as the Women of Troy continue to start off strong and boast a potent backend of their lineup, they will remain an extremely tough match for any competitor.