Men’s tennis defeats UCLA and Stanford to win Pac-12


By
 in , ,

The USC men’s tennis squad will head into the NCAA tournament as conference champions. The team took down UCLA and Stanford last week in Ojai en route to its first Pac-12 Championship since 2012.

USC automatically advanced directly to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Championship thanks to its No. 2 seed and Stanford, as the No. 1 seed, advanced directly to the semifinals as well. UCLA and California, the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds respectively, didn’t have to play until the quarterfinals. The first two matchups of the tournament were No. 5 Oregon against No. 8 Arizona and No. 6 Washington against No. 7 Utah.

During the first round on Wednesday, both of the higher seeds won their matchups. Oregon defeated Arizona by a score of 4-1 and Washington shut out Utah 4-0. The next day, both Oregon and Washington were knocked out of the tournament by their fellow opponents. California squeezed by Oregon 4-3 while UCLA swept Washington 4-0.

With the win on Thursday, UCLA was set to play USC on Friday in the semifinals.  The Trojans made quick work of the Bruins, eliminating them from the tournament with a 4-1 victory. The match began strong for the Trojans when seniors Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz, who are ranked No. 3 by the ITA in doubles play, completely shut down the Bruin pairing of Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki with a score of 8-0.  The Trojans secured the double point soon after when the pairing of junior Max de Vroome and senior Eric Johnson defeated Joseph Di Giulio and Karue Sell by a score of 8-2.

The Trojans carried their momentum into singles play, capturing the first singles point when sophomore Nick Crystal defeated Di Giulio 6-2, 6-1. Then, McDonald defeated No. 11-ranked Hanfmann 6-3, 6-4 to give UCLA what would turn out to be its lone match point.  Senior Jonny Wang put the Trojans back in the win column when he took down Sell by a score of 6-4, 7-6 (1).  De Vroome punched the ticket to the final for the Trojans after coming back from a first set loss to win his match against Austin Rapp in three sets with a score of 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.  Quiroz’s match against Redlicki and Johnson’s battle with Dennis Mkrtchian were suspended following De Vroome’s victory.

Stanford ended Cal’s tournament by beating them 4-1 in the semifinals, so the stage was set for a showdown final between No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 USC. A few weeks earlier, Stanford had taken down USC 4-3. USC also had beaten Stanford earlier in the year during a non-conference match-up by a score of 6-1, however.

The Trojans struck first in doubles play, with Crystal and freshman Thibault Forget claiming an 8-2 victory over Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski.  Stanford fought back, tying the doubles score 1-1 when the No. 13-ranked pairing of John Morrissey and Robert Stineman bested Hanfmann and Quiroz 8-6. The deciding match went to Stanford when Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz took down de Vroome and Johnson by a score of 8-5.

With Stanford winning the doubles point, the Trojans knew that they had to win at least four of their six singles matches to win the Pac-12 Championship.  Wang was the first Trojan to help contribute to those four wins, beating Paige by a score of 6-2 two sets in a row to give the Trojans their first match point. Quiroz then put the Trojans on top 2-1 with a two set (6-4, 6-4) victory over Wilczynski.  The Trojans wouldn’t enjoy that lead for long as Stanford’s David Hsu knotted the score at 2-2 shortly after when he took down De Vroome 7-5, 6-4.  Fawcett then gave Stanford a 3-2 lead when he came back from a first set loss to defeat Hanfmann by a score of 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

With the pressure on them, both Johnson and Crystal needed to win their matches for a Trojans victory while Stanford only needed one of their two remaining players, Romanowicz and Morrissey, to win their match to clinch the Pac-12 Championship.  Crystal kept the Trojans alive by defeating Romanowicz in two sets by a score of 7-6, 6-4.  Thus, the Pac-12 Championship came down to Johnson’s match with Morrissey.  The match went to three sets, and it was Johnson who had the stronger final set, ultimately winning the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.  The victory gave the Trojans both a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Stanford and the Trojans the title of 2015 Pac-12 Champions.

With the victory, the No. 8-ranked Trojans also earned the automatic qualifier from the Pac-12 into the NCAA Tournament, where the Trojans will try to reach the final goal of winning their sixth national championship in seven years. The Trojans will begin their journey during the NCAA First and Second Rounds, which will be held May 8 and 9.