In a tournament in which Rachael White and Melissa Kopinski had come through in the clutch time and again, they finally found a moment too big for them.

In the quarterfinals of the NCAA doubles tournament, the Illini women’s tennis doubles pair couldn’t get settled against the formidable foe of No. 2 Southern Cal’s Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria and lost 6-2, 6-0.

“Obviously we were a little shell-shocked today,” head coach Michelle Dasso said. “I feel like we couldn’t stay out there long enough and if we had won one or two games, it would have been a different match.”

As they had in Friday’s match against Oklahoma, the Illini quickly found themselves in a 2-0 hole with Kopinski’s serve being broken without Illinois notching a point and ending on a double fault.

The Illini seemed uptight on the court, which was inside the Atkins Tennis Center because of rain in the area. There was a huge orange and blue-clad crowd around the court formed an environment Dasso called “claustrophobic.” While USC was placing the ball in tough areas on volleys, the Illini had numerous backhands find the net or sharp forehands sail long.

“USC has a way of making you look bad,” Dasso said. “In general, they are a tricky team. We knew that from playing them in the fall but they have a tendency to make you go away from the gameplan.”

The Trojans would take the first set 6-2, and continue their momentum in the second frame by again breaking Kopinski to jump to an early lead.

The last chance for Illinois was in the third game of the second set. With White serving, the Illini held a 40-15 advantage in the game before the Trojans came by with back-to-back points to send the game to deuce. After six sequences back to deuce, Christian and Santamaria eventually broke through to steal the game and essentially ended the Illini’s chances.

“That would have been very nice to get,” Kopinski said. “That would have been crucial.”

White and Kopinski each experienced more struggles from the service line. While there were many missed first serves, two double faults each by White and Kopinski in the first and second sets, respectively, gave away games to the Trojans.

Illinois had found themselves behind in the first two matches of the tournament, which it was able to win via 7-6 tiebreakers, but dug too deep of a hole against a USC team that entered the spring 2013 season ranked No. 1 in the country.

The two teams faced each other in the Oct. 5 at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in California, which yielded the same result: a USC victory, this time by an 8-4 margin.

“I was very bummed after the match, it could have gone way better,” Kopinski said. “It was kind of a nightmare.”

Even after the loss, the Illini held the season in perspective. The duo advanced the farthest in Illinois history for women’s doubles and was just the second and third Illini players to be named All-Americans, behind Lindsey Nimmo in 1993.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.