USC women turn in a roller coaster performance

An up-and-down weekend for the USC women’s tennis team at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships finished on a sour note Sunday, as the Women of Troy (6-2) suffered their worst loss of the season to No. 5 Baylor, 5-2.

Baylor opened the match by capturing the doubles point rather easily, as the Bears’ pair of seniors Lenka Brosova and Csilla Borsanyi quickly defeated the USC junior duo of Maria Sanchez and Lyndsay Kinstler 8-4 at the first doubles pairing, followed by the Bears’ 8-5 victory at the third doubles slot.

Sophomore Alison Ramos had better luck at the second singles slot, capturing a hard-fought 7-5, 7-6 victory from Borsanyi, which evened the singles score after the fifth singles match had gone the Bears’ way earlier in the dual meet.

Brosova took on Sanchez again in the first singles slot, with the first set going Sanchez’s way 6-2. However, Brosova made a turnaround, and captured the second set 6-4 and finishing Sanchez off with a commanding 6-1 third set victory, which would prove to clinch the victory for the Bears. Brosova would finish the championships undefeated at the top singles slot.

A victory by junior Cristala Andrews turned out to be too little too late at the sixth singles slot, although Andrews’ 6-1, 6-0 victory gave the junior an undefeated run at the Indoor Championships.

The Women of Troy started the ITAs against No. 14 Clemson on Friday, in a match that turned out to be among the longest of the championships.

Freshman Danielle Lao and Ramos opened the match with a easy doubles victory, but the rest of the doubles matches proved long and hard-fought.

The pair of Sanchez and

Kinstler captured a tough 8-6 victory, clinching the doubles point for the Women of Troy, but the Trojans were unable to sweep the doubles in the middle of a three-set epic with Duke sophomore No. 91 Ellah Nze when the match was stopped after the Blue Devils had already clinched the victory. Andrews and Pulido also had their doubles match stopped once the doubles point had been clinched, but were up 8-7 when play was stopped.

The Women of Troy won’t play again until Feb. 23 at San Diego State, but will take the next few days to regroup from the long weekend.