Trojans sweep visiting San Diego State
Returning home, the No. 5 USC men’s tennis team (10-1, 0-0) played as close to perfection as realistically possible in its 7-0 sweep of San Diego State (1-6, 0-0).
In recent matches, the Trojans have been in search of consistency throughout the lineup, and yesterday they gave a consistent effort by not dropping a single set throughout the match.
“I’ve said that we will keep working toward being perfect, and today we played closer to perfect,” USC coach Peter Smith said.
Against the Aztecs — who had recently won two out of three doubles matches against No. 6 UCLA — the USC doubles lineup gained some confidence.
Senior Robert Farah and freshman J.T. Sundling started the day off with an 8-4 victory, coming off a tough doubles loss against Pepperdine last Friday.
Juniors Jaak Poldma and Peter Lucassen continued to show off their winning ways in pulling away from juniors Andre Feliz and Tim Schulz van Endert during their 8-6 victory.
Soon after, sophomores Steve Johnson and Daniel Nguyen defeated their counterparts 8-5 to seal the doubles whitewash.
USC used a new singles lineup as Lucassen took Johnson’s No. 2 spot in the order, and Sundling returned to the singles lineup after sitting out the singles portion against Pepperdine.
Johnson took the opportunity to rest his back before the start of play against Pac-10 opponents this upcoming weekend.
“I don’t think it will be an issue,” Johnson said of his nagging back stiffness. “I felt this was a good time to take the day off before Pac-10 play starts.”
Lucassen was bumped up in the lineup to test him out against some tougher competition, Smith explained.
Lucassen was indeed tested, as his match against senior Juan Gomez was the last to finish because of a lengthy second-set tiebreaker. Lucassen took the lead in the tiebreaker but was eventually forced to fight off set point multiple times. He eventually grabbed the last set for the Trojans, 6-2, 7-6 (14-12).
At the No. 1 position, Farah seemingly had the match sealed with a 5-2 lead in the second set. His opponent fought back to force a tiebreak but fell short as Farah won 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).
Poldma was the first to finish his singles match, winning 6-2, 6-4 over Feliz.
Next, sophomore Matt Kecki extended his singles winning streak to six consecutive matches by defeating Giovanni Vaglietti 6-4, 6-2.
Nguyen bounced back after losing his singles match at Pepperdine during his straight-set triumph over sohpomore Luis Rattenhuber 6-2, 6-4.
In another promising performance, Sundling controlled his No. 6 match with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Schulz van Endert.
The importance of this home match could not be overstated as the Pac-10 season starts this weekend with two matches against No. 15 California and No. 14 Stanford and many of the players are busy with schoolwork that takes up much of their time.
“It is tough to play and study, as many of the players are in the middle of midterms,” Smith said.
With a lot on the players’ plates at this point and the team heading into a crucial juncture of the season, the sweep of the Aztecs is a big aid to the entire team’s confidence.
“Right now we are playing well, we just have to keep things rolling,” Johnson said.
As the team heads up to the Bay Area this weekend, it feels that its recent performance has built a solid foundation in the hopes of compiling victories against conference foes.
“This win creates momentum, and momentum is huge heading into Pac-10 play,” Smith said.