The USC women’s individual tennis season kicks off with a trip up north to the Berzkeley Tennis Club where Trojan athletes will look to showcase what they have in store for the regular season next semester. Later this week, we’ll see Trojans compete in both the SoCal Intercollegiate and the Fall Ranked Spotlight, in San Diego and Cary, North Carolina respectively.

“It sends a statement to the other schools from all over the U.S. that our girls are here to compete,” said graduate student Eryn Cayetano. “It allows our team to showcase how strong we are.”

Playing through early November, they’ll have the opportunity to make good on Cayetano’s promise; USC players are scheduled to compete in 10 tournaments. Cayetano is slated to appear in the ITA All-American Championships, running from Sept. 30 th rough to Oct. 8.

“I’m really looking forward to All-Americans,” Cayetano said. “It’s one of the higher-level tournaments of the fall. [To qualify for it] just shows a lot about [the player] and their school.”

Last fall, USC’s Snow Han qualified for the prestigious tournament, before being knocked out in the round of 32.

The team features four true upperclassmen, with another four redshirt juniors who missed a season due to the pandemic. They are a squad who hope to use their experience to their advantage. As Cayetano put it, “Everyone is a leader in their own way.”

“We’ve been emphasizing … accountability,”  Cayetano said. “[We’re] making sure that we all stick to the same goal, which is winning at the end of the day.”

For Cayetano, this season has particular significance: As a graduate student, it’s her last opportunity to compete in a USC uniform.

She looks to build on an impressive senior season, when she and doubles partner Maddy Seig reached the NCAA Doubles Quarterfinals, compiling a 19-5 record on the year to go along with a 22-12 singles record. She capped it off by being named the ITA National and Southwest Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award Recipient.

Over the next few months, she and her teammates will travel across the country, as far as North Carolina and Wisconsin. Following this week’s Berkeley $60K, Trojan athletes will compete in 10 different events, some of which include the Milwaukee Tennis Classic and the ITA All-American Championships.

Between Oct. 6 and 8, USC will host the Women of Troy Invite, the only chance the Trojans have this fall to compete on home turf. Last year, of the seven USC athletes who took part in the tournament — which featured players from UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, among others — current junior Grace Piper and now-graduated Nathalie Rodilosso took home the doubles champion crown.

“We just want to win,” Cayetano said.“We’re hungry … A good word to use is fiery.”

A fiery attitude is exactly what Cayetano and the other Trojans hope to bring to their matches throughout the semester, carrying them to success and giving them momentum heading into spring’s regular season.

The team’s next tournaments are the Fall Ranked Spotlight and the SoCal Intercollegiate, both running from Thursday through Sunday.