Top-ranked Trojans take rain-filled weekend series

By jeremy chen · Daily Trojan

Posted January 23, 2012 at 10:47 pm in Sports, Tennis

The only thing that could stop USC men’s tennis in its doubleheader last weekend was the weather.

After the rain postponed No. 1 USC’s matchups against Loyola Marymount and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, the Trojans dispatched both teams in 7-0 sweeps a day later at Marks Stadium to begin the spring dual-match season undefeated at 2-0.

Sweep · Sophomore Ray Sarmiento and the No. 1 USC men’s tennis team began their spring dual-match season by sweeping both Loyola Marymount and UC Santa Barbara last weekend at home. - Mannat Saini | Daily Trojan

Three pairs of Trojans swept the doubles field against UCSB, including another 8-0 shutout by freshman Yannick Hanfmann, this time joining Jordi Vives to oust the Gaucho’s Ben Recknagel and Ziad Sultan.

“We had five guys play matches today that have never played [collegiately]. Yannick was an extreme — he didn’t lose a game in doubles,” USC coach Peter Smith said. “That’s pretty hard to be perfect.”

Senior Daniel Nguyen earned the team’s first single point against UCSB with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Mathieu Forget. He began both sets by breaking Forget, who fell victim to several shutout games in the match.

Nguyen’s win was promptly followed by another 6-0, 6-1 victory by USC freshman Jonny Wang over Alexander Gryaznov. Sophomore Emilio Gomez then guaranteed USC’s win by beating Greg Scott 6-1, 6-2 for the Trojan’s third singles point.

Freshman Eric Johnson, freshman Roberto Quiroz and sophomore Ray Sarmiento emerged victorious in their matches to finalize USC’s sweep over UCSB.

USC senior Steve Johnson, the reigning 2011 NCAA Singles Champion, was slated to play on Saturday and to leave for the 2012 Honolulu Challenger tournament a day later, but the rain delay prevented him from joining the Trojans in their wins.

Despite Johnson’s absence, Smith lauded the team’s efforts for its strong performance.

“We weren’t taking points off, we weren’t taking shots off and we went after it,” Smith said. “We did some really good things today, and it’s a great sign for our team.”

The first doubles victory of USC’s season came at the hands of No. 33 Hanfmann and Vives, who quickly swept their opponents 8-0. Shortly after, No. 18 Nguyen and No. 12 Sarmiento sealed the doubles point for USC with an 8-3 victory.

In court one of singles play, Gomez maintained his strong play from doubles, smashing a rocket serve that LMU’s Alex Wilton could not control to win USC’s first set of the season 6-1. He began the second set by breaking Wilton to control the tempo early, leading to his 6-1, 6-1 victory.

“I just wanted to keep the energy up from doubles,” Gomez said. “I was very relaxed, which was a big key for my game.”

Next, Hanfmann shut out Nicholas Bjerke in the final game of the second set to earn a 6-3, 6-3 victory. USC freshman Johnson then bested Felix Van Kann 6-2, 6-4 to push the team score to 4-0, clinching USC’s win over Loyola Marymount.

Sophomore Corey Smith, Quiroz and Vives also defeated their opponents to round out the 7-0 USC win.

Gomez, ranked No. 48 in Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, led the charge with two singles and two doubles wins in both matches.

“[Gomez] is becoming a real go-to guy for our team — not just in matches, but in practice,” Smith said. He’s got the heart and soul of our team with his work ethic.”

The Trojans now have a week of rest before hosting UNLV, UNC Wilmington and South Florida in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Saturday and Sunday at Marks Stadium.

One Comment on “Top-ranked Trojans take rain-filled weekend series”

  1. [...] Top rated-ranked Trojans take rain-crammed weekend collection He started both sets by breaking Forget about, who fell sufferer to a number of shutout games in the match. Nguyen&#39s win was promptly followed by an additional 6-, six-one victory by USC freshman Jonny Wang above Alexander Gryaznov. Sophomore Emilio Gomez then certain … Examine much more on Day-to-day Trojan On the internet [...]

More News

  Daily Trojan Spring Awakening Supplement

Blogs

Daily Trojan Poll

Which headliner did you enjoy most at Springfest?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Archives

January 2012
S M T W T F S
« Dec   Feb »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Browse Archives

News

SPECIAL FEATURE: Prof loses tenure bid after appeal

On April 3, Assistant Professor of International Relations Mai’a Keapuolani Davis Cross, who had traveled cross-country from her tenure track position at Colgate University to ...

Center to host more concerts after deal with Nederlander

The Galen Center entered into a deal last week with Nederlander Concerts, a Los Angeles-based company that organizes concerts with venues, to increase the numbers ...

Annenberg creates community pay phones

A group of USC students, community members and local artists in Leimert Park are bringing the pay phone back into service — and hoping to ...

Opinion

’SC sets example in lowering dropout rate

A report sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reveals that the nation’s higher education system is facing a dropout crisis. Produced in part ...

Should the GuantĂĄnamo Bay prison remain open?

The prison must be closed as it stands for hypocrisy and infringes upon international human rights.  One hundred of the total 166 inmates at the Guantånamo ...

The Internet celebrates 20th birthday

Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of World Wide Web. The organization responsible for building the Internet, CERN, also created the Large Hadron ...

Sports

Trojans begin three-game homestand against TCU

As the USC baseball team enters the final month of its baseball season 11 games under .500, it can at least feel good that it ...

USC faces North Florida in first round of tournament

For the No. 4 USC women’s sand volleyball team, its entire season has led up to this tournament. The team will finally be put to the ...

Jovan, Monica Vavic earn league awards

When it comes to dominating the competition in the pool, nobody does it better than the Vavic family. Following a season in which head coach ...

Lifestyle

An Exercise in Authenticity

Though Generation Um
includes a star studded cast—Keanu Reeves, Bojana Novakovic, and Adelaide Clemens—this film surprisingly has more of an indie vibe.  Set in New York ...

History behind shakes

Though finals loom as obstacles between now and summer, Ground Zero Performance Café has the perfect solution for both cooling down and serving your study ...

Play creates darker version of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale

Before Disney’s Peter, Wendy, John and Michael flew over “poor Nana” toward Big Ben and continued to the second star to the right and straight ...

Photos

In Photos: Washington comes to USC

In Photos: Washington comes to USC

The Schwarzenegger Institute held an immigration reform forum titled "Washington comes to USC", with U.S Senators John McCain, Michael Bennet and former President of Mexico ...

In Photos: Armenian Genocide

Photos by Ani Kolangian [gallery link="file" ids="66554,66555,66556,66557,66558,66559,66560,66561,66562"]

In Photos: Springfest 2013

Photos by Priyanka Patel. [gallery link="file" ids="65587,65586,65585,65584,65583,65582,65581,65580,65579,65578,65577,65576"]