USC and Notre Dame enter Saturday’s College MatchDay at very different points in the arc of their respective spring seasons. 

The 4-1 Trojans, ranked No. 20 in the latest Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25 poll, come into Orlando after two full weeks off from competitive action—time the Los Angeles outfit spent honing in on their strengths as they look to peak for this weekend and the Pac-12 schedule ahead.

“Notre Dame and College MatchDay is going to be a big opportunity for us,” said USC head coach Alison Swain. “It’s our first really big non-local match, out-of-conference match, other than our kickoff matches.”

The Fighting Irish, at 6-3, come in “battle tested,” according to head coach Alison Silverio, with their early slate including a 5-2 loss at then-No. 3 Georgia on Jan. 26. Silverio presided over an Irish victory at the USTA National Campus in 2019, when her squad swept Iowa, 7-0, but is looking forward to returning for the lights, cameras and action that make up the College MatchDay experience.

“We're all excited about the enthusiasm that is around college tennis and this event that the USTA puts on,” she said. “We were so excited when we had this opportunity.”

It will be a first visit to the National Campus for the Trojans as a team, though senior co-captain and No. 1 singles player Angela Kulikov was on site last spring for the NCAA doubles tournament. 

One half of the nation’s No. 1 doubles team entering the year-end event, Kulikov reached the semifinals with the since-graduated Rianna Valdes. This spring, she has forged a new partnership with freshman and longtime friend Eryn Cayetano.

Kulikov, who called the National Campus “tennis Disney World,” describes the pairing with another Disney nod.

"We've kind of branded it now, joking that it's Mufasa and Simba," she said with a laugh. "I actually used to call her 'Mini-Me' when we were young. We're both Filipino, we look similar, we both have this athletic, kind of feisty, flamboyant game style. So I was so excited to get to play with her."

A self-described “USTA kid,” who grew up training at the USTA Training Center - West in Carson, Calif., Kulikov also plays quarterback in a flag football league in her spare time, and even coached her younger brother’s youth team in years past.

Of course, the USC-Notre Dame rivalry originated on the gridiron, where the longtime rival programs have competed 91 times—every year since 1926, with the exception of a three-year hiatus from 1943-45, during World War II. The Irish lead the all-time series, 47-36-5, and are on a current three-game winning streak in the contest.

Zoe Spence, the No. 1 singles player for Notre Dame, has an even closer tie to this football rivalry: her father, Marvin Spence, was a cornerback for the Irish in the 1980s. (Her mother was also a Notre Dame student-athlete, as a field hockey captain.)

The first African-American women’s tennis player on scholarship at Notre Dame, Chicago native Spence (pictured above, right, alongside junior Cameron Corse) enters College MatchDay with a 4-3 record at the No. 1 flight. The senior co-captain’s anticipated showdown against Kulikov will lead the line on Saturday, as these two storied universities take their rivalry onto the tennis courts.

“There is, for sure, a huge tradition and history between USC and Notre Dame with football,” said coach Silverio. “So I think the excitement that’s around that and the history that’s around that is certainly going to create an electric environment. And I know we're going to come after each other.”

“It’s a super-fun, out-of-conference rivalry,” added USC’s Swain. “It’s not often you get such strong out-of-conference rivalries. I think it’ll be a really fun College MatchDay atmosphere because of that.”

Saturday’s first serve will be at 5 p.m. ET, with gates opening at 4 p.m. The match will also air live on Tennis Channel Plus, and on tape delay on Tennis Channel on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 6 p.m.