Ninth-ranked men’s tennis to take on Bay Area teams


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The No. 9 men’s tennis team comes back to Marks Stadium after over a month on the road for two back-to-back conference matches against No. 16 Cal on Friday and No. 36 Stanford on Saturday.

USC is 11-4 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-12 after losing 4-3 to Washington on Friday and beating Oregon 4-3 on Sunday.

The Trojans have four singles player ranked nationally. At No. 25 is senior captain Max de Vroome, currently enjoying the best ranking of his college career. No. 55 is junior Nick Crystal, followed three spots behind at No. 58 by freshman Logan Smith. Another freshman, Jake deVine ranks at No. 109. The only doubles pair is composed by Crystal and freshman Laurens Verboven, currently at No. 38.

The first opponent for the Trojans is No. 16 Cal on Friday. The Golden Bears are 10-3 on the season and undefeated in the Pac-12 after beating Arizona 4-0 and Utah 4-3 last week.

Four Cal players are currently ranked nationally in singles. At No. 17 is junior Andre Goransson, followed at No. 28 by junior Florian Lakat. At No. 40 is sophomore Billy Griffith, while at No. 62 is senior Oskar Wikberg. The Golden Bears have two doubles pairs in the rankings as well. At No. 44 is junior Filip Bergevi with Lakat, who is also ranked at No. 76 with Goransson. The last meeting between USC and Cal dates back to last year, when the Trojans defeated the Bears 4-2 on the road in Berkeley.

USC will play No. 36 Stanford on Saturday. The Cardinal are 10-6 overall, and they have an undefeated 2-0 record in the conference.

The Cardinal have four players in the rankings. Sophomore Tom Fawcett leads the team at No. 6, followed at No. 56 by another sophomore, David Wilczynski. At No. 101 is freshman Sameer Kumar, while senior Maciek Romanowicz is currently at No. 110. Romanowicz is also in the doubles rankings at No. 64, pairing up with senior Nolan Paige.

The Trojans beat the Cardinal 5-2 in a non-conference match earlier in this season on Feb. 26. In that match, the Trojans were able to come back after losing the doubles point, recording five wins in the singles matches. The only loss in singles came from Court 5, where freshman Jack Jaede lost at the tiebreak of the third set to Romanowicz.

The matches will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 12 p.m. on Saturday.