With five wins and just one loss to commence the new year, women’s tennis has built on its autumn success, further proving the legitimacy of its No. 20 ranking. 

They’ve taken the West Coast by storm throughout the preseason, recording convincing wins over UC Santa Barbara (1-2), Loyola Marymount University (1-2), Arizona State (3-2) and Arizona (3-1) within the span of a week.

While the Trojans entered the weekend in red-hot form, a new challenge awaited them: a journey to ice-cold Charlottesville, Virginia, to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend.

The event served as an opportunity to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, which will be held in Illinois in February. Despite their male counterparts winning the tournament four times, USC’s women have never tasted victory at the competition.

Singles bail USC out against Wisconsin

With 44 other schools competing and a shot at silverware on the line, USC was eager to get a positive result against Wisconsin (2-1) in the first round of the tournament. As a fellow Big Ten school, a win against the Badgers would be a great sign ahead of conference play in the spring. 

Victory wouldn’t come easily, though. USC’s powerhouse duo of freshman Dani Borruel and junior Lily Fairclough — ranked No. 6 in the country — were swiftly bageled by the No. 5-ranked pairing in the nation of senior Maria Sholokhova and freshman Lucie Urbanova.

Meanwhile, senior Emma Charney and junior Immi Haddad fell 6-3 to sophomore Tianna Rangan and freshman Kaede Usui, handing Wisconsin the doubles point.

Despite faltering early, the Trojans found their footing in singles. Fairly comfortable victories for Borruel and Fairclough gave the team momentum, and freshman Eugenia Zozaya’s three-set win against Urbanova perfectly set up the deciding match between 74th-ranked freshman Krisha Mahendran and Rangan.

After three sets and two tiebreakers, Mahendran finally emerged victorious in a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) nailbiter, securing the Trojans a 4-3 win overall.

Fortunately for USC, Wisconsin’s upset victories over Charney and sophomore Jana Hossam — ranked No. 12 and No. 16, respectively — were not enough to alter the duel’s outcome.

Cavaliers thoroughly dispatch Trojans

The victory over the Badgers not only earned the Trojans a perfect 5-0 record — their best start to a season since 2022 — but also set up a final-round clash against No. 14 Virginia (5-1) the following day.

Virginia entered the bout as slight favorites, and the doubles point did little to challenge that status, as the Cavaliers cruised through both matches with identical 6-1 scorelines. 

Sophomore Martina Genis Salas and senior Annabelle Xu eased past Hossam and Mahendran, piling on more misery for the duo this season. Regardless of their successful partnership in the fall, the two have since lacked chemistry, dropping four of their five doubles matches this month.

While the Trojans relied on their individual brilliance to defeat Wisconsin, they apparently pushed their luck too far, as Virginia dominated the singles matches.

Virginia freshman Kaitlyn Rolls rolled past Fairclough in straight sets, allowing Fairclough only two games in a convincing 6-2, 6-0 victory. Things progressively went from bad to worse for USC, as Zozaya then fell to sophomore Isabelle Lacy 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) by virtue of a second-set tiebreaker.

The final match of the day came down to the wire, as Charney fought hard to offer a glimmer of hope for the Trojans. Despite losing the first set to No. 30 junior Vivian Yang, she reduced the deficit and clawed back to win the second set 6-2. Ultimately, though, her efforts proved to be in vain: Yang bounced back in the last set to secure a flawless 4-0 victory for the Cavaliers.

The defeat ended USC’s Indoor Championship hopes for the second consecutive time, having also failed to qualify in 2025 following a loss to Auburn University. Thankfully, the team has plenty of time to digest the loss and reset before the season well and truly gets underway in March.

The Trojan women head back to California for their next court action, awaiting two Bay Area showdowns against No. 9 Stanford on Friday and No. 15 UC Berkeley on Saturday, both at 1:30 p.m., in what promises to be a busy weekend for USC.