USC women’s tennis entered its Sunday morning match against highly ranked Michigan looking to build positive momentum following a dominant 6-1 win against Michigan State two days prior.

The Trojans (7-3, 0-0 Pac-12) — 17th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings — started strong in doubles play.  On court three, USC juniors Parker Fry and Grace Piper defeated Michigan sophomore Lily Jones and junior Julia Fliegner 6-3. The doubles point officially went the way of the Trojans following freshman Lily Fairclough and redshirt junior McKenna Koenig’s 6-4 victory on court two over the freshmen Wolverine pairing of Reese Miller and Piper Charney.

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Entering singles play, USC led Michigan 1-0, but its point advantage didn’t last long. Michigan quickly evened the tally to 1-1 after U of M’s Jones beat Trojan senior Naomi Cheong in straight sets (6-2, 6-2) on court four. 

However, thanks to graduate Eryn Cayetano’s fifth singles win (6-3, 6-3) over Piper Charney, USC went up again 2-1. Cayetano’s victory was further bolstered by Fairclough’s well-earned win on court six (6-3, 7-6, (7-1)) against sophomore Wolverine Bayley Sheinin.   

With three singles matches still in play on courts one through three, the Trojans enjoyed a 3-1 point lead. Michigan senior Kari Miller claimed the next available point, proving her ninth overall ITA ranking. Miller defeated USC redshirt junior Snow Han at first singles in a back-and-forth three-set battle (6-2, 4-6, 6-2), pushing the match score to 3-2.

Moments after Miller’s victory, though, USC’s Piper clinched the match for the Trojans. Piper came back to win her third singles match after losing the first set to Michigan’s Fliegner. Her hard-fought victory (5-7, 6-4, 6-3) solidified the Trojans’ 4-2 underdog win over the Wolverines.

Sophomore Emma Charney’s second singles match against Michigan senior Gala Mesochoritou was therefore suspended in the middle of the third set. In the end, USC came out victorious from the showdown between the Charney sisters, with Emma, ranked 20th, on the Trojans and Piper on the Wolverines.

This is the kind of tennis USC wants to be playing. 

“Just being gritty [and] applying scoreboard pressure,” said Head Coach Alison Swain in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Being confident when we get those game points, then use points to play our game and trust our tennis.”

The Big Ten implications were not lost on the team, either. 

“I wanted to play one of the best teams in the Big Ten, and our team was excited about doing that,” Swain said. “It speaks a lot to our team culture. The girls just embrace the challenge this season and go all in together.”

Looking forward, the previously scheduled matchup against the Texas Longhorns next Sunday has since been canceled. 

“We have a lot of great teams to play ahead and we want to keep putting ourselves out there as competitors like we did today,” Swain said.

USC will take the court again March 1 at 1:30 p.m. at Los Angeles Tennis Center in Westwood  against Pac-12 rival UCLA.