USC women’s tennis capped off strong showings at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Sectional Championships and the ITA Conference Master’s Championships, with two players qualifying for the nationwide NCAA Individual Championship that starts Tuesday. Four Trojans had already qualified prior to last weekend’s tournaments.

Head Coach Alison Swain said that the Trojans’ greatest challenge commences next week. They are set to face a caliber of competition higher than anything they’ve come up against this fall.

“Everybody’s good, but the way we’ve approached a lot of tournaments is a belief in ourselves and a focus on the match we’re in, not thinking too much about who we’re playing,” Swain said. 

The Trojans put that approach into practice last weekend over a busy stretch of competition. With both ITA tournaments overlapping, USC split its roster. At Sectionals in Seattle, junior Immi Haddad competed in singles and sophomore Jana Hossam competed in doubles. Hossam partnered with freshman Krisha Mahendran, who participated in both events. 

Following a quarterfinal finish in singles and a semifinal placement in doubles, Mahendran became the sixth Trojan to qualify for the national tournament — but it wasn’t straightforward. Due to her placements, she faced “last chance” playoffs in both brackets, do-or-die scenarios where winning meant a spot at nationals, and losing meant going home. 

According to Swain, Mahendran didn’t let the magnitude of either match get to her head. In singles, she recorded a routine 6-4, 6-2 victory over Oregon junior Tilde Jagare in the 5-8 playoff. It was even easier in doubles — Mahendran and Hossam swiftly dismantled Washington’s pairing of senior Reece Carter and junior Jermine Sherif in the third-place playoff, winning 6-1, 6-2.

“She handled the pressure really well,” Swain said. “She stayed focused on the match she was in, and played with a lot of belief in herself and what she knows she can do on a tennis court.”

With the win, Hossam qualified for doubles at nationals. She will also compete in the singles section of the tournament, having made a deep run to the final in the Southwest Regional Championship in October.

“I was really impressed by how quickly she made a jump in her game,” Swain said. “She came back from her first tournament in September not feeling great about the way she played, and she just dove into everything we were telling her about what she needed to do to get better.”

Haddad, however, fell short of qualification, narrowly losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (5-7) to Carter in the Round of 16.

Despite being USC’s lone representative at the Conference Master’s Championships in San Diego, freshman Eugenia Zozaya made her presence felt, advancing all the way to the singles championship match and clinching a spot at NCAA nationals.

In the final, Zozaya faced her toughest test yet: Georgia junior Aysegul Mert, the spring 2024 NCAA doubles champion alongside then-junior Dasha Vidmanova. Mert is currently ranked 28th nationally in ITA singles and 75th in doubles with freshman Deniz Dilek.

Zozaya ultimately lost, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, in a hard-fought encounter. The match went the distance, with Mert emerging victorious in a 7-5 third-set tiebreaker.

Three Trojans who did not partake in last weekend’s competitions will also hit the courts for nationals. Senior Emma Charney, the first Trojan to qualify back in September, will return for her second appearance at the NCAA championships. She debuted in spring 2024, where she fell in the Round of 64. 

The powerhouse duo of junior Lily Fairclough and freshman Dani Borruel previously qualified in commanding fashion, winning the doubles tournament at the Southwest Regional Championships in October. Fairclough competed in the 2024 doubles championships, reaching the Round of 16 alongside then-senior Grace Piper.

Borruel is one of the three freshmen on the squad this season, all of whom qualified for nationals. According to Swain, out of seven freshmen primed to compete in the singles draw, USC is the only school with two.

Swain said that despite the talent the freshmen possess, giving them time to acclimate rather than instantly throwing them in at the deep end has been key to their development.

“We could have had them play tournaments early in September, but it was like, ‘No, let’s have them at USC for a month, help them train and get better, and then start playing tournaments,’” she said. “And I think that mindset and approach were a little unusual, but really paid off.”

USC has a lot going for it heading into nationals, including its strength in numbers, which makes a world of difference in terms of support and presence, Swain said. USC ranks alongside top programs like Georgia and North Carolina in sending one of the largest contingents to the championships.

However, they still have a lot to prove, since none of the six Trojans are seeded, meaning they aren’t guaranteed favorable draws in the first round of play.

“People may underestimate us. They might be talking about how many players we have, but they’re not talking about how USC can do damage in this tournament,” Swain said. “We can go in there with an underdog mentality and show people what we’re capable of.”

The Trojans will take to the courts from Nov. 18- 23 in Orlando, Florida, for the climax of their individual season at the long-awaited NCAA Individual Championships.