Southern California Collegiate Tennis Championships : Laux Breezes to Victory in Final, 6-1, 6-1 : Third-Seeded USC Freshman Overpowers Teammate London

USC’s tennis coaches are often fond of calling 5-foot 1-inch, 98-pound freshman Trisha Laux their secret weapon, saying she’s so small you can’t even see her.

But Laux has her own weapons--namely, a powerful forehand and backhand--which were unveiled at the Rolex-ITCA Southern California Collegiate Championship at UC Irvine.

With those weapons working, Laux produced a 6-1, 6-1 victory over USC teammate Stephanie London in the final Sunday morning.

Until Sunday, at least in college circles, no one was really quite sure how well Laux could play. She had an excellent junior career, culminated by a No. 2 national ranking in the girls’ 18-and-under division in 1986.

But the ITCA event was her first collegiate tournament, and London’s also, so USC Coach Dave Borelli was eager to see what would happen.

After Laux breezed through the 53-minute match without facing a break point, Borelli was ready to make a pronouncement, especially now that USC’s secret is out.

‘She’s definitely a player to be reckoned with,” Borelli said. “I think she could win the NCAA’s this year even though she’s only a freshman. I think she could win it four years in a row.”

Borelli said he was impressed with Laux’s ability to raise the level of her game with each match she played. She lost one set in six matches, that to UCLA’s Allyson Cooper. Laux, seeded third, lost four games to experienced teammate Mary Norwood in the quarterfinals and three to Pepperdine’s Janna Kovacevich in the semifinals.

“Trisha’s ability has maybe put some of the kids in awe of her,” Borelli said. “Trisha played well today and Stephanie didn’t play as well as she can. I think the scores today indicated that combination.

“I don’t know if they (the other players) had a game plan against Trisha. With Trisha, you have to have game plan because her game is so solid.”

On Saturday, London said she knew she would have to run a lot against Laux because of her opponent’s impressive ground strokes. However, while warming up for the final, London felt she wasn’t moving as well as she should, mainly because of having played four matches on Saturday.

“I think she definitely has a good chance to win the NCAAs this year,” said London, who was seeded seventh. “And she’s only a freshman. I think a serve-and-volley player might give her more trouble, but I think she has the best ground strokes of all the girls.”

And just how does Laux manage to generate all that power?

“I don’t know,” said Laux, who qualified for the National Indoor Collegiate Championships, Feb. 4-7, in Minneapolis. “People always ask me that. I’ve always tried to hit the ball as hard as I can. Before, I tried to smack everything. Now I think I’m more patient.”

Notes

Arizona’s Susan Russo and Betsy Somerville won the doubles championship, defeating Pepperdine’s Janna Kovacevich and Anna Brunstrom, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2. In the semifinals, Somerville and Russo beat UCLA’S Joni Urban and Allyson Cooper, 6-3, 7-6, and Kovacevich and Brunstrom defeated San Diego State’s Dorey Brandt and Julie Tullberg, 6-3, 6-3.