No. 24 Women of Troy face two Pac-12 matches


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The No. 24 women’s tennis team is back at Marks Stadium after two road matches to face No. 66 Arizona and No. 26 Arizona State in two back-to-back conference matches Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Women of Troy are 10-4 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-12 and currently on a winning streak of seven consecutive matches, with the last loss dating back to Feb. 25 against UCLA.

The team can rely on five players ranked nationally in singles. At No. 22 is senior captain Giuliana Olmos. She is currently on a seven-match win streak playing in the No. 1 singles spot, with just three losses overall in the season.

Sophomore Gabby Smith is currently ranked No. 103, followed by freshman Jessica Failla at No. 113. Failla is currently on a six-match win streak and has a team-best 18 singles wins so far in the season. At No. 117 is sophomore Madison Westby followed by freshman Rianna Valdes at No. 120 rounding out the nationally-ranked singles players.

Two doubles teams also made their appearance in the latest rankings update. At No. 8 in the country is the duo of Olmos and Smith who are the best ranked pair at USC. They are followed by junior Zoe Katz and Westby at No. 56.

The first opponent for the Women of Troy is No. 66 Arizona. The Wildcats are 12-9 overall in the season and 1-6 in conference matches after they split their road trip last weekend, defeating Washington State 5-2 and losing to Washington 3-4. In singles their only ranked player is junior Lauren Marker, currently at No. 42. Marker is also in the doubles rankings at No. 35, pairing up with senior Shayne Austin. USC has a 50-15 all-time record against Arizona. In the two teams meeting last season, the Trojans won 5-2 in Tucson.

On Saturday the team will play No. 26 Arizona State. The Sun Devils are 15-4 overall and 6-1 in conference matches, and are coming off a winning weekend against the Washington schools, beating the Huskies 4-1 and Washington State 6-1.

In singles ASU has two players nationally ranked. At No. 23 is senior Desirae Krawczyk, followed by junior Kassidy Jump at No. 84. In doubles, the pair of junior Alexandra Osborne and senior Ebony Panoho are ranked at No. 26, followed at No. 65 by Jump and and freshman Sammi Hampton. The Women of Troy have a 52-22 all-time record against the Sun Devils. Last season USC defeated ASU in Tempe, 5-2.

The matches will begin at 2 p.m. on Friday and 12 p.m. on Saturday. The singles action on Friday against Arizona will be televised on Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Arizona, with the live broadcast starting at 3 p.m.