USC Beats UCLA, but Nice Doesn’t Do It

When USC women’s tennis Coach Dave Borelli looked at his players this spring, he saw a talented team but a group with little fire.

“They’re nice kids,” he said. “We don’t really have any cocky, arrogant kids and sometimes you sort of want that.”

In short, he was saying nice isn’t always nice when it comes to winning tennis matches. So, Borelli issued a wake-up call just before USC’s second dual match against UCLA--consisting of extended workouts and a few harsh words in a team meeting.

The new-look Trojans turned out to be an improved model as Borelli’s methods worked, resulting in a 6-3 victory over the No. 4-ranked Bruins Friday at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center.

This was hardly a struggling team by any means, one with a 17-4 record and No. 3 national ranking no less, but Borelli wanted to see something positive in their last match before next month’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament.

So, he wanted positive. OK, he got it as, among other things:

--USC freshman Trisha Laux fought off a tough challenge at No. 1 singles before defeating Allyson Cooper, 7-6, 7-6. Laux is 3-1 against Cooper this season, but two of their matches have gone three sets.

--Senior Mary Norwood, playing in the final regular-season dual match for the Trojans, made it a memorable one as she beat UCLA freshman Jessica Emmons, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, at No. 2. Norwood squandered two match points in the eighth game of the third set and another in the ninth. Then, the nerves got to Emmons in the 12th game as she was unable to convert three match points. Finally, Norwood closed out the match when Emmons hit a backhand into the net.

That, really, was the key to the USC-UCLA matchup. Norwood’s victory pulled the Trojans into a 3-3 tie heading into the doubles. If Emmons had won, UCLA would have needed just one doubles victory to win. Instead, it needed two and it didn’t even get one.

UCLA’s strength all season has been in doubles as the No. 1 team of Cooper and Stella Sampras and No. 2 Joni Urban and Emmons had lost just four times heading into this match. But Norwood and Lupita Novelo defeated Cooper-Sampras, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Ginny Purdy and Stephanie London beat Urban-Emmons, 6-4, 7-6. Urban-Emmons had led, 5-1, in the second set.

“We didn’t play well, and I’m very disappointed in our performance, no question about it,” said UCLA Coach Bill Zaima, whose team (18-5) had recently defeated No. 2-ranked Stanford at Palo Alto. “We had a 5-2 lead in the second set of a doubles match and we couldn’t close it out. We got scared. When the momentum changed, our players got scared.”

Borelli, meanwhile, was just happy to come away with a victory after almost five hours.

“I don’t want to play you guys again (in the NCAA tournament),” he shouted over at Zaima. “No way.”

And, after losing 5-4 and 6-3 to USC this season, Zaima probably couldn’t agree more.