This past weekend featured 10 Trojans competing in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional Championships. Sophomore Emma Charney and junior Grace Piper headlined the team’s performance making it to the singles semi-finals, with Charney winning the program’s 10th ITA Regional Singles Title Tuesday. On top of that, USC was the only team to have four players compete in the singles quarterfinals. 

“That really says a lot about how strong our team is at the top,” said Head Coach Allison Swain in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Then we’ve got some players competing and playing better this year.” 

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In addition to the depth at singles, this year saw all three doubles teams make it to the quarterfinals with two reaching the semifinals. 

“Doubles was an area in Spring 2022 that we knew we had to improve on and we started that journey last year and it got a lot better,” Swain said. 

Redshirt junior Snow Han and senior Naomi Cheong battled their way past the round of 16, winning 8-7 while Piper and junior Parker Fry also endured a grueling 8-7 win. 

“These girls have done their best to trust the process and look at where they know their game needs to go long term,” Swain said. “To have that show up in the tournament this week has been really fun.” 

One of the more exciting developments of the tournament was Piper’s unlikely run to the singles semifinals ranked within the 17-32 seeds. Coming off of the second-round bye, Piper was able to get into motion with a 6-4, 6-4 victory and then faced No. 6 ranked Nikki Redelijik. In a match where Piper took an early lead, she was able to carry the momentum and finish things off in the second game 7-5. 

“These girls have really embraced our personal philosophy of a team playing Deuce points to their advantage,” Swain said. 

Piper did just this when she came back from down 1-4, winning 7-5 and sending her to the semifinals. 

“I don’t think anybody but herself and maybe some of the other girls on our team were expecting that run out of her,” Swain said.

The star of the show, however, was Charney, who recently made full nationals for the first time and one-upped her breakout freshman season, which had ended in the semifinals. Her bout this year came in a do or die match against Amelia Honer (UCSB). After winning a tight first game 7-6, Charney dropped the second one 3-6. However, she was able to bounce back and leverage her speed, landing some strategic shots, which led her to a demanding 6-1 victory. 

“She kind of just had to weather the storm of that second set and not get rattled,” Swain said. 

Chaney won 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 against No. 2 seed Savannah Broadus (Pepperdine) Tuesday to win the championship. She became the first Trojan to win it since Salma Ewing. The sophomore’s strong performance also enabled her to qualify for the ITA Fall Nationals, which is scheduled for next weekend.