The Trojans took to the courts across town on a sunny Tuesday afternoon to face their conference rival No. 23 UCLA for a final time before this season’s Pac-12 championships.

The last time No. 50 USC (6-15, 1-5 Pac-12) faced the Bruins (12-6, 4-2 Pac-12), the matchup amounted to a tough loss at home. When the Trojans traveled to Los Angeles Tennis Center this time, they sought a more positive outcome.

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However, as unsatisfactory this season may have been, the Trojans just recently snapped a nagging losing streak with a Senior Day win against UC Berkeley (10-8, 3-2 Pac-12). Even though the team proved unable to maintain any positive momentum — as Stanford (14-5, 6-1 Pac-12) swept them the following day — USC looked to approach the end of the season on a positive note.

“I told the guys, it’s kind of a no-brainer you have to gear yourself up for,” said Head Coach Brett Masi in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We gotta come out and compete really hard.”

Unfortunately, consistency continued to evade the Trojans, as doubles play did not allow for them to begin the match on stable ground.  

USC’s duo of freshman Volodymyr Iakubenko and senior Lodewijk Weststrate quickly defeated UCLA’s duo of redshirt junior Timothy Li and junior Giacomo Revelli in second doubles (6-2).

Shortly after, Trojan pair of graduate Samuel Rubell and junior Karl Lee battled back from down a break to push their match to a tiebreaker but eventually fell to Bruin pair of freshman Spencer Johnson and redshirt freshman Emon van Loben Sels on court one (7-6, (7-4)).

The contest for the doubles point was decided on court three, where the Bruin pairing of junior Alexander Hoogmartens and redshirt senior Govind Nanda won their tight match against the Trojan pairing of junior Peter Makk and senior Niroop Vallabhaneni (7-6, (7-3)).

The Trojans entered singles play in a one-point hole.

However, Lee’s dominant win at sixth singles against Bruin senior Jorge Plans Gonzalez (6-3, 6-3) tied the match and evened the playing field.

It didn’t take long for No. 27-ranked Nanda to restore UCLA’s lead, pushing the match score to 2-1. He made quick work of Makk on court one despite a late surge from USC’s top-ranked player in the second set (7-5, 6-3).

Moments later, Iakubenko’s hard-fought win against Revelli at fourth singles (6-4, 7-5) tied the match score up again at 2-2 with three points still on the table.

UCLA was the next to nab another point, gaining a 3-2 match lead following Johnson’s point-for-point defeat of Trojan sophomore Oscar Weightman — who returned to singles play following several matches out due to a lower-body injury — on court two (7-6 (7-2), 6-4). With only two points still up for grabs, tensions were high as singles play continued.  

Eventually, UCLA’s sophomore Gianluca Ballotta beat USC’s Rubell in a back-and-forth three-set battle (6-3, 2-6, 6-2), simultaneously clinching the win for UCLA with a final match score of 4-2.

Despite another disappointing loss, the team took a lot away from this match in preparation for postseason play.

“We’re getting better productivity and better tennis from everyone,” Masi said. “We’ve just got to swing away when we get those chances and just let it go.  We have nothing to lose, nothing to protect at this point, so let’s go get it.”

The Trojans will surely be swinging away in their last match before Pac-12 championship play. USC takes on Utah Sunday at Eccles Tennis Center at 2 p.m.