USC Women’s Tennis’ Maddy Sieg Through to NCAA Singles Final Four, Trojan Duo Sieg and Cayetano To Compete In Doubles Semifinals

Women’s Tennis | May 25, 2023

ORLANDO, Fla. – Maddy Sieg of the USC women’s tennis team advanced to the semifinal round of the NCAA Championships singles tournament at the USTA National Campus Thursday, becoming the first Trojan to reach that stage since 2007. Sieg and her All-American partner Eryn Cayetano had a similar result on Thursday, beating their South Carolina opponents to advance to the doubles semifinals. 
 
Freshman All-American Sieg continued her winning ways, beating South Carolina’s Ayana Akli in a three-set thriller, winning the match 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in true ‘Fight On’ fashion. The Connecticut native will be just the second freshman in USC history to reach the singles semifinal and the first Trojan in USC history to reach both the NCAA singles and doubles semifinal in the same season. 
 
With her win, Sieg advances to tomorrow’s semifinal where she’ll meet fellow Pac-12 freshman phenom Fangran Tian at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT. The crosstown rivals are very familiar with one another, having previously faced off twice during the 2022-23 season, where Tian has topped Sieg twice during dual-match play. 
 
Just hours after punching her ticket into the singles semifinals, Sieg returned to the court, this time alongside her All-American doubles partner Eryn Cayetano. The score was even through two sets, with the Trojans forcing a tiebreak to decide the match. USC’s duo would eventually beat South Carolina’s Ayana Akli/Sarah Hammer 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 [10-3] to advance to the doubles semifinals. 
 
Tomorrow, the duo will face Michigan’s Brantmeier/Scotty at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. 
 
For the first time since 2007, USC will be represented in the NCAA singles semifinal. The last Trojan to do so was Lindsay Nelson, who would go on to reach the singles championship final that season. 
 
This marks the first time since 2019 that a Trojan duo has reached the doubles semifinals, with Rianna Valdes and Angela Kulikov being the last USC pair to do so. This season also marks the ten-year anniversary since USC’s last NCAA Doubles Title (Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria in 2013). 
 
USC will be the only Pac-12 school represented in both the singles and doubles semifinals tomorrow.