No. 11 USC Women’s Tennis Awaits No. 6 Pepperdine in Super Regional

THIS WEEK
The No. 11 USC women's tennis team continues their pursuit of a national title with a short trip to Malibu for the NCAA Round of 16. USC will face off against No. 5 [6] Pepperdine on Friday (May 10) at 1 p.m. PT at the Ralph Strauss Tennis Center. 

This will be the Trojans third encounter with the Waves this season. USC first faced Pepperdine at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, falling 4-2 to the then-No. 6 ranked Waves. The Women of Troy later fell 4-0 to the No. 3 ranked Waves on March 23 in Malibu. USC looks to avenge both loses this Friday and snap a 14-match losing streak to the Waves. 

The eight teams that advance out of the Super Regional will head to Stillwater, Oklahoma for the quarterfinals through national championship. Matches will be played at the Greenwood Tennis Center May 17-19, with the singles and doubles finals to take place thereafter from May 20-25. 

MATCH INFO
Friday, May 10 - 1 p.m. PT 
[11] USC at [6] Pepperdine
Malibu, Calif – Ralph Strauss Tennis Center 

Admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public. The match will be livestreamed via PlaySight and as part of Cracked Racquets' whip-around Super Regional coverage provided on its YouTube channel. Livestream and live stat coverage for Friday's match can be found here. 

ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
The Women of Troy enter this week ranked No. 11 in the country (ITA Computerized Rankings April 23). 
 
Currently, four Trojans appear in the national singles rankings, with sophomore Emma Charney leading USC at No. 33 and junior Grace Piper locked in the No. 60 ranking. Trojan fifth-year Eryn Cayetano sits at No. 97 while redshirt senior Snow Han claimed the No. 99 spot. 

The Women of Troy also boasts two ranked duos in No. 22 Cayetano and Charney and No. 60 Parker Fry and Grace Piper. 

REGULAR SEASON RECAP
USC wrapped up the regular season 17-7 overall and 8-2 in conference play. Sophomore Emma Charney led the Trojans in singles wins this season, tallying 29 so far. In doubles, the No. 69 ranked duo of Parker Fry and Grace Piper lead the way for the Trojans with 25 wins as a pair. 
 
The Women of Troy beat five top-25 ranked teams this season, including No. 2 Michigan and No. 11 Cal on the road. 

Pac-12 RECAP
No. 3 seeded USC women's tennis team reached the semifinals at the 2024 Pac-12 Championship tournament, winning their quarterfinal match against Washington (4-0) before falling to No. 3 [2] Stanford (4-2) in the semifinal. Stanford went on to capture the team title in the championship final. 

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
The Women of Troy hold a 78-38 all-time record in the tournament. USC has won six national championships in all, including NCAA titles in 1983 and 1985 after the NCAA began its women's tennis championships in 1982. USC has won five National Singles Championships (1976 - Barbara Hallquist [USTA], 1977 - Barbara Hallquist [USTA], 1978 - Stacy Margolin [USTA], 1981 - Anna Maria Fernandez [AIAW], 1983 - Beth Herr [NCAA]) and two National Doubles Championships (1980 - Trey Lewis/Anne White [AIAW], 2013 - Kaitlyn Christian/Sabrina Santamaria [NCAA]). 

This year marks the furthest USC has advanced in the NCAA Tournament since reaching the Super Regional in 2021, where they fell 4-1 to North Carolina State.

In 2023, the Women of Troy were selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament where the Trojans beat UNLV 4-0 in the first round at Pepperdine. USC would eventually fall to host No. 9 Pepperdine 4-1 in the second round. 
 
Trojans Maddy Sieg and Eryn Cayetano earned selection into the women's NCAA Doubles Championships in 2023 as the duo would go on a deep run into the semifinal and pick up All-America honors. Individually, Sieg made history reaching the Singles Championship semifinal as a freshman, earning All-American honors while becoming the first Trojan to reach both the singles and doubles semifinal in the same season.  

SCOUTING PEPPERDINE
No. 5 Pepperdine (6th seed) is 19-6 on the season and currently riding an eight-match winning streak. 
Boasting three All-Americans atop the lineup in #12 Savannah Broadus, #15 Lisa Zaar and #39 Janice Tjen, Pepperdine has five nationally ranked players in its singles lineup. And the two unranked true freshmen on the roster are respectable in their own right: Jasmine Conway is the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year, while Vivian Yang is already a perfect 2-0 in NCAA Tournament matches with her straight-set wins from last week. Throw in seniors #80 Nikki Redelijk and #86 Anna Campana in the mix, and Pepperdine's lineup has talent and skill from top to bottom needed to win matches.

Pepperdine's doubles lineup is effective too, as the nation's second-ranked team of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen are in the final act of one of the best doubles careers in program history. Broadus and Tjen are the first team in Pepperdine history to earn All-American honors three times, they have a 30-3 overall record this season and have gone 12-1 against nationally ranked pairs. Redelijk and Yang join them at the second position, plus a new team of Campana and Zaar, which has a 4-1 record since the duo's debut three weeks ago.

In last week's opening rounds, Pepperdine quickly dispatched SIUE in a 4-0 sweep before overcoming a doubles point loss to #26 Arizona State by winning the match with four straight-set singles wins. Heading into this Friday, Redelijk leads the team with her nine-match win streak, while Broadus and Tjen have won their last eight singles matches. Tjen leads the team with her 18-2 record at the first three positions, plus she has gone 8-2 against nationally ranked players this year.

Earlier this season, USC won the doubles point over Pepperdine at the ITA Division I Indoor National Team Championships thanks to #60 Parker Fry and Piper clinching the doubles point at the third position. USC's only other point against Pepperdine this year was Piper's 6-2, 7-5 win at the fifth position at ITA Indoors.

INDIVIDUAL ACTION
USC women's tennis has a trio of Trojans heading into NCAA Individual competition, with two Trojans locked in for singles play and one USC duo in that draw. Sophomore Emma Charney and junior Grace Piper have secured their spots in the 64-player NCAA Singles draw, while Charney and Eryn Cayetano will make their NCAA doubles debut.

PAC-12 HONORS
Four Trojans from the USC women's tennis team have earned athletic honors from the Pac-12 Conference. Senior Snow Han, Junior Grace Piper and sophomore Emma Charney have been named to the All-Pac-12 First Team and fifth-year Eryn Cayetano earned All-Pac-12 Second Team honors.

BY THE NUMBERS
In her seventh season as the USC women's tennis head coach, Alison Swain has brought the Trojans back into national recognition and prepared them for a championship run to bring home the team's third NCAA team title. Five Trojans have earned twenty-plus singles wins this season. Sophomore Emma Charney, who was recently named to the All-Pac-12 First Team leads the group with 30 singles wins. Charney is followed by fifth-year Eryn Cayetano and junior Grace Piper who both sit at 25 singles wins apiece. Senior McKenna Koenig has tallied 17 wins while senior Snow Han has collected 16. 

USC's dynamic duo of Parker Fry and Grace Piper have tallied a whopping 26 doubles wins this season, leading the Women of Troy in wins as a pair. 

CLINCHERS
Nine different Trojans have clinched matches for USC this season. Sophomore Emma Charney leads the team with six and McKenna Koenig is shortly behind with four. Snow Han has delivered three clinchers this season while Immi Haddad has clinched a pair of matches for USC. Naomi Cheong, Grace Piper, Sloane Morra and Lily Fairclough have recorded one clinch a piece.