Women of Troy easily defeat Aztecs


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The USC women’s tennis team returned to action on Tuesday with a rousing victory over visiting San Diego State.

The Women of Troy, who entered the matchup ranked No. 6 in the nation, showed no signs of rust after a weeklong break from competition, thoroughly dominating the Aztecs on their way to a 7-0 victory.

USC was on point throughout the match, beginning with doubles play. The first victory of the day came courtesy of the pairing of sophomores Gabriella DeSimone and Giuliana Olmos. The duo opened up with an 8-0 thrashing of their opponents and, with that, opened the floodgates for a dominating afternoon for the Women of Troy. Following that victory, USC’s top pairing of junior Kaitlyn Christian and sophomore Sabrina Santamaria clinched the team’s first point, winning 8-2 on court one. It was the first match that the two have played since being ranked as the top doubles team in the country in the most recent round of ITA national rankings.

Santamaria also was ranked as the top singles player in the nation, and she continued her season-long dominance against the Aztecs, starting off singles play with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Julia Wais. Christian followed that win with a near-perfect 6-0, 6-1 victory on court five. With the count standing at 3-0 in favor of the Trojans, DeSimone was next to claim a point, and in doing so clinched the match for the Women of Troy, winning 6-0, 6-2 on court three. Following her triumph, newcomer Ellie Yates and Olmos were next to clinch with 6-0, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-2 victories, respectively. Last to finish was senior Danielle Lao. Lao entered the match ranked third in the nation in singles play and did nothing to hurt that mark, winning 6-1, 6-3 on court two and capping off a 7-0 victory for the Trojans.

The win on Tuesday left the Trojans standing 8-1 overall (the lone loss being at the hands of No. 8 ranked North Carolina at the ITAs), and 5-0 at Marks Stadium. The Women of Troy will now look to their rematch against Cal this weekend in Berkeley. The two teams first met a little under two weeks ago in the consolation round at the ITA National Team Indoor championships. Following a trend this season, Lao and Santamaria led the way in that matchup, both defeating top-10 opponents en route to a 4-1 victory for the Trojans.

Following the match against Cal, the Women of Troy will travel to San Diego and UCLA before returning to home action on March 12 against Texas.