This weekend, the Trojans returned to the court after sweeping the Women of Troy Invite, where freshman Jana Hossam won the singles title and senior Sloane Morra and freshman Anya Murthy took home the doubles title. Hossam was also named the Big Ten Tennis Player of the Week after her impressive 5-0 record at the invite.

From Oct. 17–22, USC competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional Championships in San Diego, Calif., where the top doubles team and two singles players automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The Trojans failed to qualify any players through the tournament. Doubles team sophomore Lily Fairclough and senior Grace Piper, are currently the only Trojans who have qualified for the NCAA Championships. There will be two more chances for players to qualify: the ITA Sectional Championships and the ITA Conference Masters Championships from Nov. 7–10.

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“[Fairclough and Piper used] this tournament to work on a few things. They actually changed the sides they returned from,” said Head Coach Alison Swain in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We became a lot clearer on plays that they want to use in doubles that help them play to their strengths and we were able to start work on that during the tournament.”

Fairclough and Piper, the No. 1 seeds in the tournament, lost 8-3 in the quarterfinals to UCLA’s freshman pairing of Kate Fakih and Olivia Center. Fakih and Center’s impressive run was stopped in the championship, with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Pepperdine’s team of senior Savannah Broadus and sophomore Vivian Yang.

“We’ve got to use every tournament this fall to focus on development and how each player is getting better and understanding their game more,” Swain said. “It’s one of the reasons [Fairclough] and [Piper] played the tournament in doubles even though they’ve already qualified for the NCAAs.”

Junior Emma Charney, ranked No. 15 in singles, was the 2023 singles champion at the regional championships. But this year, Arizona State sophomore Emilija Tverijonaite upset Charney after a close second set in the quarterfinals 6-1, 7-6 [4]. As a freshman, Tverijonaite was ranked No. 68 in the ITA Singles rankings compared to Charney’s No. 20 spot.

Both freshman Simone Kay and Piper lost in the Round of 64 — Kay to UCLA sophomore Bianca Fernandez 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and Piper to Arizona State sophomore Ada Piestrzynska 1-6, 7-6 [6], 6-4.

“There’s a lot of good matches and a lot of tennis played,” Swain said. “As the tournament went on, a lot of our players really got to test themselves and compete a little bit better each day.”

Coming off of a first-round loss to India’s Sahaja Yamalapalli at the International Tennis Federation Bakersfield Women’s Open, Fairclough defeated Arizona five-star recruit freshman Stephanie Shogreen in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, but was outmatched by Hawai‘i graduate student Stefania Rogozinska-Dzik in a difficult three-set match in the Round of 32, losing 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

Graduate student Maia Sung, sophomore Immi Haddad, Murthy and Hossam made it past the Round of 64 with wins over Loyola Marymount freshman Camilia Samel-Druz 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, UCLA sophomore Mia Jovic 6-4, 6-1, San Diego State University junior Ninon Martinache 6-2, 6-7 [6], 7-5 and San Diego State University senior Zoe Olmos 6-7, 6-3, 6-3, respectively.

However, the four were booted to the consolation bracket in the Round of 32. Sung was dominated by Broadus, who was the 2022 ITA Southwest Regional Singles Championship, 6-0, 6-0. Broadus went on to the final of the tournament, where she lost 6-2 6-2 to UC Santa Barbara senior Amelia Honer.

As for the rest of USC’s Round of 32 matches, Haddad was beaten by Honer 6-2, 6-3, Murthy was defeated by UC San Diego freshman Hannah Read 7-6 [7], 6-0 and Hossam took a loss to UCLA junior Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer 6-0, 6-2.

“Our team has three weeks now of training and competing within our team, like practice matches, before we get into some more tournaments,” Fairclough said. “Everyone on the team is gonna compete and really work hard on getting better in those three weeks with the coaches as well, so I’m excited to not worry about competition for a while and just get some good work done in the gym and on the court.”

The Trojans will travel to Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., to compete at the Jack Kramer Classic from Nov. 1–3.

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