Men’s tennis loses in NCAA tournament round of 16


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The NCAA tournament came to a close for the No. 10 men’s tennis team after falling short to No. 7 Georgia in the round of 16, 4-3.

Despite holding a 3-1 lead, The Trojans weren’t able to close the match. The loss marked the end of the team’s season and left it with a 17-7 record this year.

“I think with matches like that you have this overwhelming sense of being a part of something that is bigger than you. It’s such a great rivalry between Georgia and us,” head coach Peter Smith said. “To play that quality of a match for three and a half hours, you really feel like it’s a honor and privilege to be a part of it. It hurts to lose, but it was just a great match.”

The Trojans began the match with a win on Court 1 in doubles, where the No. 46-ranked pair of junior Nick Crystal and freshman Laurens Verboven were able to beat Georgia’s Austin Smith and Ben Wagland 6-1. On Court 3, freshman Jack Jaede and sophomore Tanner Smith closed it out with a 6-4 win over sophomore Wayne Montgomery and freshman Emil Reinberg, giving USC the doubles point and the lead in the dual match.

Jaede kept the momentum going at the fifth singles spot with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Georgia freshman Jan Zielinski, giving the Men of Troy a 2-0 lead. No. 32 Montgomery put the Bulldogs on the board with a 6-1, 6-4 over No. 41 Crystal at the second singles spot. No. 121 sophomore Thibault Forget was able to close his match in two sets over No. 123 freshman Walker Duncan with a score of 6-2, 7-6 (6) bringing the Trojans to one match and one point away from the upset and reaching the quarterfinals.

However, at the sixth singles spot, junior Rob Bellamy wasn’t able to finish off the match after winning his first set and suffered a comeback against Georgia senior Nick Wood, who ended the match with the score of 6-4, 2-6, 1-6, tightening the gap at 3-2 in the dual. At third singles, No. 69 freshman Logan Smith fell to No. 64 sophomore Paul Oosterbaan 4-6, 6-7 (7), making it 3-3 and leaving the odds to Court 1, where No. 23 senior Max de Vroome was facing No. 17 Smith.

After a slow start, de Vroome was able to bring the first set to a tie-break before eventually losing the tiebreaker 2-5. In the second set, de Vroome bounced back and was able to pull a 6-1 win and take the match to the final set.

With the score tied at 3-3, de Vroome was able to break and hold serve, making it 5-3. Smith held serve and the Trojan had a chance to close the match and the dual on serve at 5-4, but was unable to convert it. At 5-5, Smith kept his momentum going and grabbed the lead at 6-5, securing the tie break. De Vroome, who was serving to stay in the match, didn’t hold serve and the Bulldogs finished their comeback and punched their ticket to the quarterfinals.

The Trojans began the tournament by defeating UNLV 4-0 and No. 32 Georgia Tech 4-2 in the first and second rounds respectively in order to advance to the Round of 16.

De Vroome and Crystal will keep playing in the singles draw starting on Wednesday.

De Vroome will play against Dominik Koepfer of Tulane. Crystal will face off against Joao Monteiro of Virginia Tech.