Men’s and women’s tennis combine for 5-0 weekend


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Senior captain Brandon Holt led USC to its first road win of the season. (Daily Trojan file photo)

The USC men’s and women’s tennis teams each continued their hot starts this season with dominant wins this past weekend at their respective dual-match tournaments.

The No. 3 men’s team traveled to the Bay Area to take on No. 11 Stanford and No. 15 California. Led by senior captain Brandon Holt, USC cruised past the Cardinal with a 6-1 victory to capture its first road win of the season. 

Following Friday’s impressive performance, the Trojans secured a 4-1 victory against the Bears Saturday in Berkeley.

USC brought along all its players from its previous tournament along with Holt for the road tests at Stanford and Cal. Head coach Brett Masi said the early experience playing on the road will be beneficial for the team later on this season.

“We’re going to face some adversity playing at different environments,” Masi said. “We played two top 15 teams this weekend … We got some heavy competition in before going off on the road again next weekend to [face an] even more adverse environment.” 

The Trojans notched their first point Friday in Palo Alto with the doubles pair of sophomore Mor Bulis and Holt. The two secured a 6-4 win over Stanford’s pair of junior Timothy Sah and sophomore Sangeet Sridhar to get USC on the board.

The Cardinal struck back to tie the score during the first singles action but freshman Ryder Jackson responded to give USC the go-ahead lead with a fast 6-3, 6-2 win on court six. 

The momentum continued into the Trojans’ next two matches, as Bulis and Holt finished things off to secure the win. USC tallied another two wins to make the final score 6-1 at the end of the first day.

USC continued its dominant performance at Berkeley Saturday, starting with a quick 3-0 advantage over the Bears. Cal got on the board with a singles win before freshman Stefan Dostanic clinched the victory for USC in a three-set victory. 

USC women’s tennis huddles during its tournament at Marks Stadium. (Colin Huang | Daily Trojan)

Masi praised the freshman after the match.

“Stefan had a rough match yesterday against Stanford and he lost,” Masi said. “We told him to get ready for today’s match … He had a good attitude and the match came down to him and he showed he was ready.” 

On the women’s side, No. 19 USC played Saint Mary’s in its home opener Friday at Marks Stadium, sweeping the Gaels 4-0 to start off the day.

Saturday’s matches featured a doubleheader for the women’s team against UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State. The first doubles point went to the Gauchos when sophomores Danielle Willson and Estella Jaeger were dealt a loss. After senior Angela Kulikov and sophomore Salma Ewing each recorded two-set victories over UCSB, the Trojans tied the score 2-2. USC eventually triumphed over UCSB to secure its first victory of the day.

The Trojans carried that momentum into their next match against Long Beach State. USC took an early 1-0 lead with a doubles victory before freshman Eryn Cayetano and Willson captured respective two-set wins over their opponents to give USC a 3-0 overall advantage. 

The Trojans closed out the day with a 4-1 win over Long Beach State after competing for a total of six hours. 

Next up, the USC men’s team will travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State Sunday while the women will head to Chicago to compete in the ITA National Indoor Championship Feb. 7-10.