Men’s tennis continues conference play in weekend double


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Junior Stefan Dostanic hits a forehand during USC’s match against Harvard earlier this month. Dostanic was recently Pac-12 Player of the week. | Andrew Kerner | Daily Trojan

After a bumpy start to Pac-12 play, men’s tennis will have an opportunity to improve their conference record with two home matchups this weekend.

USC began conference play last Friday with a 4-3 victory against Arizona State. The Trojans were led by junior Stefan Dostanic and senior Bradley Frye, who together took a commanding 6-1 doubles win on court one, each claiming singles victories. The duo are ranked No. 6 and No. 116 by the ITA in singles, respectively, and No. 17 together in doubles play at the time of publication. Dostanic also earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors Thursday. 

“[Frye and Dostanic] have definitely done a lot better job of coming out and being the solid number one pairing,” said Head Coach Brett Masi in an interview with the Daily Trojan.

Two days later, the Trojans fell 4-3 to No. 19 Arizona, bringing USC to 1-1 in Pac-12 competition. The pair of matches saw USC slip one spot to No. 15 in this week’s ITA rankings. 

Masi said that improving the team’s singles play will prove vital to avoid future conference losses.

“Definitely, our singles needs to be better,” Masi said. “We haven’t done very well in three-set matches, so maybe being a little bit more clutch … when the time comes to win those bigger points.”

USC will open the weekend with a rubber match against No. 13 Stanford Friday. After losing to the Cardinal in their first matchup, the Trojans claimed a 4-1 victory in a rematch at last month’s ITA National Team Indoor Championship. 

“We were a lot more motivated the second time,” Dostanic said. “We just had really good energy. We know that we can beat them if we’re playing well.”

Masi said he believes that keeping the team’s energy up during singles play can ensure a victory.

“Both times, the team that went out in singles and kind of just enforced their will upon the other group definitely showed a dominance,” Masi said. “At ITA Indoors, we lost the doubles point, and then, we just went right after them from the get-go in singles … We just had a lot of good energy amongst our group.”

USC will face California in their second rematch of the weekend Saturday. The Trojans won the teams’ first meeting 4-2, losing the doubles point but recovering swiftly in singles play.

“We had a little bit of a letdown starting in the Cal match,” Masi said. “[Freshman Ryan Colby] was out, and then we put [graduate student Paul Barretto] in with [junior Ryder Jackson] and maybe we were mispositioned a little bit. But either way, the biggest difference was just our energy.”

The Bears have had a strong showing since last facing USC, coming off seven straight wins to climb the ITA ranks to No. 27 as they head to Los Angeles for the weekend. Cal will face UCLA in conference play Friday before visiting Marks Stadium Saturday.

Masi hopes his players can move past their rough conference opening last week and have a successful weekend of Pac-12 play.

“New weekend, new start,” said Masi. “We got to work harder than we did last week and give ourselves better opportunities to win those matches that were so close.”

The Trojans will take on the Cardinal at 3 p.m Friday and the Golden Bears at 1 p.m. Saturday in back-to-back home matchups.