THIS SEASON:
Jewel Peterson enters her third season at USC ... Ranked No. 13 in singles and No. 10 in doubles (with partner Tiffany Brymer) in the ITA preseason rankings... Posted a 7-4 fall singles record and a 5-2 mark in doubles... Advanced to the ITA Regional Championship singles finals and doubles semifinals... Qualified for the ITA National Championships and advanced to the quarterfinals... Expected to compete at the No. 1 spot in the spring.
2001 SEASON:
Peterson made an easy transition to the No. 1 position as a sophomore ... She earned a No. 22 final ITA ranking and recorded a 31-13 overall record, 18-8 mark in dual matches and an 11-8 record against Pac-10 opponents ... Was named to the All-Pac-10 first team and the ITA All-America first team... In the fall she captured her second-consecutive Rolex Regional Singles Championship with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Michelle Gough of Arizona ... Advanced to the second round of the Rolex National Indoor Championship but fell to eventual champion Ipek Senoglu of Pepperdine (then evened the score by defeating a then-fifth ranked Senoglu twice during the dual match season) ... She did not lose a match in the month of November (seven straight wins) and recorded six straight victories between Feb. 22 and March 16 ... Advanced to the third round of the NCAA Singles Championship before falling to Adria Engel of ASU ... Playing at No. 1 doubles, Peterson and Tiffany Brymer were ranked No. 14 by the end of the season... The duo posted a 19-16 overall record, 14-12 dual match record and 9-9 Pac-10 mark ... In the fall the pair advanced to the quarterfinals of the Rolex Regionals and the semifinals of the Pac-10 Indoor Championships ... They were eliminated in the first round of the Pac-10 and NCAA Tournaments.
2000 SEASON:
USC’s most highly touted freshman, Peterson broke into collegiate tennis as one of the nation’s top players ... She completed the season ranked 17th according the ITA final rankings ... For the year she posted a 35-16 overall record, 15-11 mark in dual matches and a 14-8 record against Pac-10 opponents ... She earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention honors and was named to the ITA All-America first team ... Beginning the fall season ranked No. 4, she claimed two tournament titles in her first two outings ... She defeated Amy Jensen of Cal to win the ASU Invitational on Oct. 9, then defeated Cintia Tortorella of Pepperdine on Nov. 15 to win the ITA Regionals and earn an automatic bid to the championships ... Positioned to play at the No. 1 spot, she struggled at the start of the dual match season and was moved to the No. 2 position where she accounted for seven straight wins at one point ... She spent the last four matches of the regular season playing at the No. 3 spot and posted a 2-2 record ... She reached the second round of singles competition in the Pac-10 Tournament and went on to win the Pac-10 Invitational doubles championship with partner Jacqui Boyd ... In the first round of the NCAA team tournament, she defeated Karri Bielewicz of UMBC, 6-1, 6-1 ... After a loss in the second, she defeated Fernanda Tsucamoto of LSU in the round of 16, and was the only one to post a victory against Georgia by defeating Marissa Catlin in the quaterfinals ... Selected to compete in the NCAA singles championships, she advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to eventual-champion Laura Granville of Stanford ... She played the majority of her doubles matches with Boyd and collected an 8-5 overall (5-4 dual matches) record at the third spot in the lineup.
PREP EXPERIENCE:
Peterson is a 1999 graduate of Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga. ... She was the No. 1 singles player on her high school squad for three seasons (1996, 1997, 1998) and was named team MVP each year ... Twice named the GTA Junior Female Player of the Year (1993, 1996) and ranked No. 1 regionally by the Southern Tennis Association G16 ... She ranked seventh nationally by the USTA in 1997 ... Other teams she has played with include: GA Junior Davis/Federation Cup Team, USTA National Indoor Junior Travel Team, USTA Intersectional Team and USTA Team USA ... With the USTA, she competed in Italy, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Paraguay and Brazil ... She won titles at the STA/Duckhead Junior Super Circuit (1997), Atlanta City Open (1997, 98), Southern Closed Championships (1993, 96, 97) and USTA National Indoor Championships (1995, 97) ... In 1998 she was ranked No. 37 by the USTA.
PERSONAL:
Jewel Renee Peterson was born on July 10, 1981 in College Park, Ga. ... She is the daughter of Ernest and Jean Peterson ... She hopes to earn a degree in communications and play on the professional tour following graduation.
