Holt wins all-Trojan tennis battle
Daily Trojan file photo
Friendly fire · Senior Nick Crystal (above) lost to freshman teammate Brandon Holt in the singles championship of the SoCal Intercollegiate.
In a Trojan vs. Trojan match for the title, freshman Brandon Holt defeated senior Nick Crystal to claim the singles championship at the Southern California Intercollegiate at Marks Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Holt won in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) over his teammate. In fact, he advanced through the latter stages of tournament — which began on Friday — via friendly fire. The last three matches came against fellow Trojans; Holt defeated freshman Riley Smith in the quarterfinals on Saturday and junior Thibault Forget in the semifinals on Sunday to advance to the finals.
The freshman continues to be on a tear, as he has now won 10 straight matches; he carried a five-match winning streak into the tournament. He also swept every set at the tournament, winning all 10 sets he played. The 6-foot-1 Holt was the No. 1 recruit out of high school as a senior out of Palos Verdes High School and was also named the 2015 Breeze Player of the Year.
Holt was robbed of a chance to take home more hardware from the tournament, as he and Smith advanced to the finals in doubles, only to have the match canceled. Rain postponed the match on Sunday and their opponents — Alexander Sendegeya and Bjorn Thomson from Texas Tech — could not stay to reschedule the match to Monday.