Other USC Sports Round-up

The USC women's tennis team has several standout players shining at the top of the list for both regional and Pac-10 honors this season. Junior Lindsey Nelson has been named the Pac-10 Women's Tennis Player of the Year, and freshman Sarah Fansler is the West Region Rookie of the Year and the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Also honored this season for their contributions on and off the court are Amanda Fink and Anca Anastasiu. Fink has earned All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention, and Anastasiu has been honored with the West Region's ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship. Fansler and Anastasiu's West Region awards put the pair in line for the national honors as well. Those awards will be announced May 22 at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.

As the 2007 Pac-10 Singles Champion, junior Lindsey Nelson (Villa Park, Calif./Villa Park HS) is the second Trojan to be named the Pac-10 Women's Tennis Player of the Year. She has been a first team selection all three of her years at Troy and has another powerful season so far for the Trojans. As she prepares to move into the NCAA Round of 16 with her fellow Women of Troy on Friday in Athens, Ga., Nelson holds a 26-6 overall singles record - marking the fewest singles losses of her teammates on the Trojans dual match ladder. Playing at the competitive No. 1 singles slot, Nelson went 14-5 in dual matches and recently worked her way into two late-season rematches of the 2006 NCAA Singles Championship match, where she faced NCAA champ Susie Babos of Cal. Nelson won both her dual match face-off and the Pac-10 Singles Championship match against Babos to secure the Pac-10 crown for the USC junior. Now ranked No. 5 in the nation, Nelson earned the No. 4 seed into the NCAA Singles Championships where she aims to make another run to the final match.

USC men's tennis head coach Peter Smith has been named the 2007 Pac-10 Men's Tennis Coach of the Year for his success in leading the Trojans to the biggest turnaround in program history. He is joined in 2007 All-Pac-10 distinction by four Trojan athletes as well, as the 22-2 USC squad heads into the NCAA Round of 16 this week. Senior Jamil Al-Agba has been named to the Pac-10 First Team, following by senior Dejan Cvetkovic and junior Kaes Van't Hof on the Second Team, and freshman Robert Farah's accolades as Honorable Mention.

For Peter Smith, the Coach of the Year award is the second of his Pac-10 career, as he last won the honor in 2004. The 2007 Coach of the Year award recognizes Smith's efforts in turning the Trojans around from a disappointing 2006 year in which USC went 8-14 overall in suffering numerous 4-3 losses to a powerful 2007 season. This year, Smith's USC team tied the best season start since 1987 as the Trojans opened the year 11-0 before falling to top-ranked Georgia. USC went on to place second in the Pac-10 with a 6-1 record and earned the No. 12 seed into the NCAA Team Championships, where the Trojans are set to enter the Round of 16 on Thursday in Athens, Ga. USC is currently 22-2 overall.

The No. 1 Women of Troy arrived at Lake Natoma and made a resounding statement. With each varsity boat taking the medal stand throughout the day, the team earned enough points to outpace stiff competition from perennial Pac-10 women's rowing powers, No. 8 California and No. 16 Washington.

This is the first conference championship for the USC women's rowing team and comes in the fifth year since husband and wife Zenon Babraj and Kelly Babraj took over the program. The conference championship also secures a team bid for the Trojans into the 2007 NCAA Women's Rowing Championships taking place in Oak Ridge, Tenn. in two weeks. The Trojans last competed at the NCAA championships as a team in 2005.

"This is a great culmination to a great season for these kids. They worked hard and they had hard races but eventually, they put together a great team," said head coach Zenon Babraj. "We were confident that we could win the varsity eight race, but winning the conference championship is just icing on the top of the cake. Every one of our boats performed at their level or above and that is what brought the success we had today."