This week, the USC women’s tennis team will host the Women of Troy Invitational tournament at the Marks Tennis Stadium from Thursday to Sunday.

The Women of Troy Invite is the first of two home tournaments this fall season, the other event being the Women’s ITA Sectional Championships from Nov. 7-10.

USC had a strong performance last week at the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina, with its No. 20 doubles team consisting of sophomore Lily Fairclough and senior Grace Piper reaching the semifinals of the tournament and securing their place in the NCAA Doubles Championship.

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The first-time duo beat Florida International University’s No. 6 ranked doubles team of juniors Oyinlomo Quadre and Katerina Mandelikova 6-4, 3-6, [10-6], making Fairclough and Piper one of four doubles teams in the nation to already have clinched a spot in the fall championships.

“Our game styles definitely work well [together],” said Fairclough. “[Piper] is a pretty aggressive baseliner, and I’m great at the net, so we click. We’re also pretty close friends, so we definitely have a lot of fun on the court, which adds to playing well. The more time we spent playing, the better it got, and we ended up having a pretty good result at the end of the week.”

Freshmen Simone Kay, Jana Hossam and Anya Murthy, as well as senior Sloane Morra, will make their first appearance of the fall season at the invite this week. Kay was ranked No. 23 nationally and No. 4 in California as a recruit, and Murthy was a Blue Chip recruit ranked as high as No. 56 nationally and No. 1 in California. Egyptian recruit Hossam had a career-high ITF Junior singles ranking of No. 67.

“The fall really has to be about player development for us, outside of the NCAA tournament, but especially for our newcomers,” said Head Coach Alison Swain in an interview with the Daily Trojan.

Returners Fairclough and senior Parker Fry will also be competing this weekend in both singles and doubles. At the ITA All-American Championships, Fairclough and Fry both lost in the singles prequalifying draw. However, Fry made it to the qualifying doubles round of 16 with graduate student Maia Sung.

“I’m super excited to be back home after being on the road the past couple weeks and having the home atmosphere and home court advantage,” Fry said. “It’s just nice to play where you train, and having my friends and family come out and the support of playing at home is so nice.”

The Trojans will face temperatures of up to 96 degrees Fahrenheit this week due to a recent heat wave, but they are prepared to take the necessary precautions to prevent adverse heat effects.

“We’re definitely going to have to be hydrated and take care of ourselves, not just while we’re on court, but before and after and leading up to it,” Swain said. “That’ll be something that our players just need to be on top of. Luckily, we have a lot of resources and our dietitian helping us. Part of the professionalism of playing a sport at a high level is handling those things but it’s always an advantage for us to be playing at home.”

USC will begin matchplay at 3 p.m. Thursday against BYU to kick off the tournament.

Sloane Morra is a sports columnist for the Daily Trojan and is not involved in the publication of any tennis coverage.