USC will head to the Bay to face Stanford, Berkeley

No. 17 women’s tennis travels up north this weekend for matches against Pac-12 rivals, starting with No. 19 Stanford Friday followed by No. 14 UC Berkeley Saturday. 

The Trojans come off a 5-2 loss against Pepperdine in Malibu Saturday. Before the loss, USC was riding a four-match win streak where they allowed a total of 2 points and shut out both Arizona and Hawaii Pacific at home. 

The win streak comes after the Trojans ended February going 1-6. USC currently stands at 10-8, and the recent ITA team rankings released on Wednesday saw the Trojans jumped from No. 18 to No. 17. 

Sophomore Naomi Cheong, who scored one of USC’s two points in the loss to Pepperdine, has gone 2-0 in her last two singles appearances. She said it was important for the team to keep trusting the process while they went through the stretch of losses last month.

“It’s obviously starting to show because the last couple of weeks we’ve been doing better result-wise,” Cheong said. “It was definitely a learning curve for us.”

Two Trojans who have particularly performed well in singles this year are redshirt freshman Snow Han and junior Eryn Cayetano. Han holds a 26-8 record and recently rode a 13-match unbeaten streak until she lost to sophomore Janice Tjen in the match against Pepperdine. Meanwhile, Cayetano sits at 26-9 and currently ranks No. 6 overall in ITA’s singles rankings. 

During the win streak, the duo of Han and Cayetano went a combined 7-0 in singles. 

Cheong, Han’s doubles partner in the team’s last three matches, said Han and Cayetano anchor the team. 

“You know you can always count on them because they’re going to do their very best in each of their individual matches,” Cheong said. “That mindset definitely helps the team in general.”

The Trojans will look to establish rhythm in road fixtures. The team has gone 4-5 in road matches this year while 6-1 at home.

“When we go to other places, there’s other factors that we have to deal with that we don’t have to deal with at home,” Cheong said. “But, by all means, it can’t be an excuse.” 

The trip will start with a match at Stanford Friday. The Cardinal currently stand at 9-3 while undefeated in both Pac-12 play, and also came off a 7-0 victory over the Utes Sunday. 

Stanford freshmen Connie Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova have proven successful in singles. Both were highly ranked recruits who elevated the Cardinal to the No. 1 women’s tennis team last summer, according to Tennis Recruiting Network. The two hit the ground running and have not let Stanford down, as they both rank inside the top 20 in the nation for singles. Ma stands at a 19-4 record in singles while Yepifanova is 20-5. 

USC will then travel to Berkeley for a match against the Golden Bears, who are also undefeated against Pac-12 competition. Berkeley currently rides a three-match win streak, with back-to-back 7-0 victories against Utah and Colorado last weekend. 

Cheong said the team has talked about staying confident and blocking out external noise such as other team’s results.  

“We just want to focus on our job and what we want to do as a team,” Cheong said. “Coming into this weekend, we have a lot of hope and aspirations [for the team].”

USC is set to play against Stanford at 1:30 p.m. Friday and against Berkeley at 12 p.m. Saturday.