USC handed first loss of season in Ann Arbor
With a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on the line Sunday in Ann Arbor, South Carolina was handed its first loss of the season by the No. 16 Michigan Wolverines.
No. 31 USC kicked off its national competition season over the weekend, playing two matches in as many days in the ITA event hosted by Michigan, picking up one win and one loss to bring its record to 3-1 overall. The trip was the team’s first action outside of Columbia since the start of the spring season.
Saturday pitted the Gamecocks against SEC rival and No. 53 Missouri in a contest that was not decided until the conclusion of the final singles match of the day. South Carolina raced out to an early 3-1 lead behind singles victories from senior Adriana Pereira and junior Katerina Popova, but Mizzou mounted a two-match comeback to tie the overall score at three apiece.
The up-and-down day for South Carolina could be the result of a new philosophy coach Kevin Epley has instilled in his team for the spring season.
“Basically the philosophy that we’re having this semester is to focus on improvement and the things that we can control day to day,” Epley said. “We’ll kind of let the results take care of themselves just as long as we stay engaged in that process.”
The Gamecocks clinched the win over the Tigers when senior Josefin Andersson took a 7-5 victory off Mizzou’s Madison Rhyner.
“[Andersson] has been in situations before ... where she lost those points,” Epley said. “So I think it was really important for her confidencewise, and quite frankly she performed very well.”
Andersson and Popova have both compiled undefeated singles records for the Gamecocks in the early goings of the spring campaign.
As winners from the day before, South Carolina and Michigan faced off Sunday, putting their respective unbeaten spring marks on the line. The doubles play headlined Sunday’s action, as the Gamecocks and Wolverines split the first two contests before USC lost a thriller in the third match of the day.
The final doubles competition saw South Carolina come within two points of winning the match before Michigan forced a tiebreaker that would eventually favor the Wolverines.
“At No. 2 doubles, the effort was there to make a change. It just wasn’t significant enough,” Epley said. “When we got up 4-0, we really should’ve won that match.”
Epley pointed to a lack of aggression once the Gamecocks’ second doubles duo jumped out to an early lead as a factor in the loss.
Three of the six singles matches of the day were cut short, including a highly touted top-100 matchup between USC’s No. 96 Popova and Michigan’s No. 61 Ronit Yurovsky.
South Carolina will play archrival Clemson on Feb. 3 as it continues a road trip of away games until Feb. 23.
In Epley’s first year with USC, he is continuing to leave his mark on Gamecock tennis and striving to create a consummate contender in the world of collegiate tennis, and he sees this weekend in Ann Arbor as a sign the team is headed in the right direction.
“We’re building a program, and that doesn’t happen overnight,” Epley said. “I would have to say that overall I’m pleased with the weekend, I’m pleased with the progress that the girls are making and I’m very pleased with their ability to be engaged and work on the things that need to be worked on.”