Men’s Tennis has rough outing in season-opening tournament

Men’s tennis kicked off their season at the Southern Intercollegiate Championship in Athens, Georgia this past weekend. Facing off against the University of Virginia, University of Texas and the University of Georgia, USC came away with only 11 wins across 28 total singles and doubles matches throughout the weekend. 

The Trojans had high hopes coming into this tournament, with the No. 1 ranked Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles player and reigning SIC winner, senior Stefan Dostanic, leading the charge. Besides boasting the defending champion, USC seemed strong-footed, having won over half of their total games in this same tournament a year ago. The Trojans and their six top 100 ranked singles players and two top 100 ranked doubles teams looked poised to duplicate such success; however, it did not go as well as anticipated.

USC started the weekend facing off against the Cavaliers, with seven singles players playing and three doubles teams. It wasn’t long before No. 1 ranked Dostanic was dethroned, as he lost his first match of the day in singles and then lost later in doubles with sophomore Wojtek Marek. Donstanic’s usual doubles partner, graduate student Bradley Frye, was able to win his match against Virginia and gain a positive in an otherwise lackluster performance from USC on day one. 

Day two against the Longhorns showed more positive results for the Trojans, as most of the matches went a full three sets. Yet, Texas still had the upper hand in the majority. Dostanic earned his first win of the tournament Saturday as he defeated No. 16 ranked Micah Braswell in a match where Dostanic battled back after dropping the first set. USC also showed more fight in the doubles matches of the day, taking two out of the three doubles matches.

Day three against the Bulldogs was rather disappointing for the Trojans, as they only mustered one singles win on the day but were able to once again take two out of three doubles matches. It would take all the way until game three, however, for USC’s No. 2 ranked doubles team of Dostanic and Frye to get their first win of the year. They took down Georgia’s doubles team of fifth-year Trent Bryde and redshirt freshman Ethan Quinn with a score of 8-6. This was only the pair’s second official match of the year together, but there are still high hopes for the rest of the season.

“Stefan and I had a pretty good year last year… but today it was just kind of nice playing out there together again,” Frye said in an interview with the Daily Trojan.” Obviously, [Saturday] we didn’t have that good of a match… but today we were able to feel pretty healthy and that ended up being good, and obviously we’re super comfortable playing with each other so it was fun playing with him and being out there again.”

While USC’s SIC performance fell short of that of last year, with this being the first tournament of the year, the Trojans and head coach Brett Masi look to use this as a springboard for the competitions moving forward for the rest of the year.

“That’s the first thing, just kind of getting more steady and consistent work in, and also hopefully we can continue to get some individual stuff and maybe use some of the video from this week to help us grow,” said coach Masi. 

Like many others, Frye and the team have high expectations for themselves this season, and know there’s always a target on their back given USC’s status. However, he and the team hope to return stronger and better than ever next time they hit the courts.

“Really at the end of the day, I think it’s not going to be so much about the other team, but really about our team,” Frye said.  “As long as we prepare well, train well, practice well, by the time season comes, I think we’re ready to go and we’re able to just give our best every match.”

The Trojans have some time off from competition, as the next time they hit the courts will be Oct. 1 to Oct. 9 in  Tulsa, Oklahoma for the ITA Men’s All-American Championships.