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USC Women’s Tennis Travels to Crosstown Rival UCLA
April 17, 2018 | Women's Tennis, Features
THIS WEEK
The No. 47 USC women's tennis team will travel across town to rival No. 14 UCLA to challenge the Bruins on Saturday (April 21) at noon in Westwood, Calif. in the regular season finale.
ORACLE/ITA RANKINGS UPDATES
On April 17, the Oracle/ITA team rankings were updated and the Women of Troy are now securing the No. 47 spot. The singles/doubles rankings were updated as well, and two Trojans remain ranked in singles.
Senior and co-captain Gabby Smith continues to remain the highest ranked Trojan in singles at the No. 36 spot, moving up 12 spots from last week's rankings. Smith is 22-13 on the season, and is the only Trojan on the roster to have at least 20 wins. In every match she has played in, Smith has competed from the No. 1 singles position. She is currently riding a three-match winning streak after defeating opponents from Utah (Alexia Petrovic), Arizona (Devin Chypyha) and Arizona State (No. 53 Lauryn John-Baptiste). Smith is also tied with junior Rianna Vades and sophomore Becca Weissmann for most clinches on the team with three (Oklahoma, Washington and Arizona).
Junior Rianna Valdes moved up seven spots to the No. 91 ranking. Valdes is riding a three-match winning streak from the No. 2 position. She has defeated opponents from Colorado (Chloe Hule), Utah (Brianna Chisholm) and Arizona State (Ilze Hattingh). Valdes is 14-5 on the season.
In doubles, USC's Kulikov/Valdes maintained their No. 46 rank from the previous week. They are 10-8 on the season playing in the No. 1 doubles position.
SCOUTING UCLA
The No. 14 UCLA Bruins are 16-4 overall and 8-1 in conference play, with their only loss occurring at Stanford 4-3. The Bruins are currently riding a seven-match winning streak and coming off a victorious weekend defeating Arizona State (4-0) and Arizona (4-0). They will challenge No. 10 Pepperdine on Wednesday (April 18) in Malibu, Calif.
UCLA has four nationally ranked singles players: No. 15 Ena Shibahara, No. 35 Jada Hart, No. 55 Abi Altick and No. 98 Alaina Miller. The Bruins also boast four nationally ranked doubles pairs: No. 6 Hart/Fleming, No. 19 Hart/Shibahara, No. 34 Andrews/Hart and No. 52 Andrews/Broomfield. The Trojans are 49-45 all-time in their series with the Bruins dating back to 1977.
THE LAST TIME
Since USC's previously scheduled home match against UCLA on March 2 was rained out, the Trojans have not yet faced the Bruins in the 2018 season. The last time USC and UCLA met was on April 22, 2017, in Westwood, Calif. when then-junior Gabby Smith clinched a thrilling 4-3 upset of the Bruins. In addition to Smith, current Trojans Madison Westby and Angela Kulikov both earned victories against UCLA in that match.
LIVE STATS
Follow along on Twitter and Instagram (@USCWomensTennis) for live in-match updates.
