Women of Troy look to rebound against Aztecs


By
 in ,

The USC women’s tennis team returns to California but remains on the road today for a nonconference dual match against the San Diego State Aztecs at 1:30 p.m.

The Women of Troy are aiming to get back on a winning track after a competitive stretch at the ITA National Team Indoors in Wisconsin two weekends ago. USC defeated No. 14 Clemson in the first round but then tarnished its perfect record by falling to both No. 1 Duke and No. 5 Baylor.

This caused USC (6-2) to drop from No. 7 to No. 9 in this week’s ITA team rankings. SDSU also dropped from No. 48 to No. 60 this week.

The Aztecs are 4-3 on the year and are led by junior Julia Trunk in singles play. Trunk was unranked in last month’s singles rankings but now holds the No. 58 spot. Trunk has won three straight singles matches at the No. 1 singles spot, including an upset of No. 11 Venise Chan of Washington.

USC junior Maria Sanchez boasts a 7-1 overall record in singles after posting an impressive takedown of Duke’s No. 20 singles player, Reka Zsilinszka . This helped improve Sanchez’s singles ranking from No. 8 to No. 3.

Women of Troy sophomore Alison Ramos increased her national ranking from No. 39 to No. 19.

USC’s two other ranked singles players, freshmen Valeria Pulido and Danielle Lao, are both 6-2 but fell in this month’s rankings from No. 37 to No. 51 and from No. 18 to No. 31, respectively.

USC is 35-4 all-time against the Aztecs after posting a 7-0 sweep of SDSU last season. The Women of Troy have also won the last 13 matches dating back to the 1994 season, including eight straight shutouts.