USC Digest


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Santamaria wins ITA Women’s title  

Less than a month into her college tennis career, it appears freshman Sabrina Santamaria is already getting the hang of things.

Santamaria won the ITA Women’s Southwest Regional Tennis Championship in San Diego, Calif., defeating teammate and fellow freshman Zoe Scandalis in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. The win was Santamaria’s sixth consecutive straight-set singles victory.

With Santamaria’s win, the Women of Troy have now won four straight ITA regional singles championships.

Santamaria was unseeded coming into the tournament but quickly progressed, defeating four top-10 seeds during her run, including No. 10 Scandalis in the final. Santamaria also beat junior Danielle Lao, another member of USC’s women’s tennis team and winner of the event last season. The two met in the quarterfinals with Santamaria winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Besides the three who made the quarterfinals, the Women of Troy had three players compete in the tournament. Freshman Gabriella DeSimone, senior Alison Ramos and sophomore Kaitlyn Christian all advanced to the round of 32 before getting knocked out.

On the doubles side of the bracket, Christian and Santamaria advanced to the finals before losing to Robin Anderson and Skylar Morton of UCLA. Ramos and Scandalis advanced to the round of 16 before withdrawing.

DeSimone and Lao were paired together but were defeated in the round of 32.

Santamaria will try to stay in top form when USC plays next on Friday at the Jack Kramer Championships in Palos Verdes, Calif.

 

—Nick Selbe

 

USC places seventh at championship 

It had been a bumpy start for the USC men’s golf team.

In its first event of the season, the PGA West, USC placed 10th out of 16 teams.

But in the Trojans’ second event of the season, they bounced back, placing seventh at the U.S. Collegiate Championship, which concluded Tuesday at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, Ga.

The Trojans led play in the first round and tied for third after the second round. At the conclusion of the tournament, USC finished at 7-over-par (282-288-301). Crosstown rival UCLA took first at 12-under-par. Washington and Auburn tied for second at 9-under-par.

Senior Steve Lim was the highest Trojan finisher. Lim tied for 13th at 1-under-par (66-73-76). He had four bogeys and 14 pars during his final round.

Freshman Anthony Paolucci tied for 31st at 4-over 220 (71-71-81). Paolucci also had back-to-back birdies on nine and 10. Sophomore Jeffrey Kang (73-71-76) and Paolucci both finished 4-over-par. Kang opened his final round with eight pars and finished the final 10 holes at 4-over-par with one birdie.

Martin Trainer tied for 37th at 5-over-par (72-73-76).  The junior began the final round with an eagle on the par-5 first hole. Trainer was 4-under-par through eight holes but finished the back nine at 8-over.

Rounding out the Trojans, sophomore Ramsey Sahyoun tied for 49th at 8-over-par (77-74-73) and recorded the team’s top score in the third round.

The Trojans will head to San Martin, Calif., to compete in the Gifford Collegiate Championship on Monday.

This will mark the final fall event for USC before the team resumes its season in early February.

 

—Andie Hagemann