Two months ago, as the fall tennis season came to a close at the NCAA Individual Championships, the USC men’s and women’s teams ended up in vastly different situations.

The women capped a remarkable tournament season, nabbing six of the 96 spots in the NCAA bracket. Sophomore Jana Hossam made a run to the singles semifinals, while freshman Dani Borruel and junior Lily Fairclough advanced to the doubles semifinals. 

Meanwhile, the men failed to send a single player to the NCAAs after falling short at the Southwest Regional Championships in October.

However, with the spring season signaling a fresh start, both Trojan squads now find themselves in near-identical places: Both are ranked No. 19 in the country — and, in their first two dual matches, both dominated the competition to start off 2-0. Though the road to the NCAA Team Championships is long, USC’s men and women are already putting themselves in a great position to return to the tournament come May.

Men cruise past San Diego squads

The Trojan men kicked things off Sunday morning with a rout of San Diego State University (1-2), taking the doubles point with ease before nabbing three singles matches to secure the season-opening victory.

After going undefeated in three doubles matches last season, sophomores Connor Church and Nathan Trouve picked up where they left off against the Aztecs, taking down freshman William Kleege and sophomore Denis Maijorov by a score of 6-2. Freshmen Branko Djuric and Max Exsted followed with a 6-1 win over juniors Aleksi Lofman and Brock Anderson, clinching the doubles point in both of their collegiate debuts.

Exsted and Trouve carried that momentum into singles, each breezing through their opponents in straight sets by identical 6-2, 6-1 scores. Junior Andrin Casanova saw a nail-biting opening to his first appearance as a Trojan, edging Anderson in a tiebreaker before pulling away in the second set, 6-2, to lock down USC’s 4-0 win.

Just hours later, the Trojans were right back on their home court for a matchup with UC San Diego (0-2). Though the opponent was different, the outcome was much the same: USC swept all seven points, failing to drop a single set to the Tritons.

Following their individual success against San Diego State, Exsted and Trouve teamed up in the doubles round for a 6-2 victory over freshman Prathinav Chunduru and senior Zach Pellouchoud. As in the previous match, two new Trojans — this time, Casanova and graduate Jack McCarthy — clinched the doubles point, downing UC San Diego’s freshmen duo of Abhinav Chunduru and Trevor Nguyen, 6-4.

The singles round was an all-out showcase of USC’s dominance and depth. All six Trojan competitors swept their Triton foes in straight sets, beginning with sophomore Niels Hoffmann’s  6-0, 6-0 sweep of graduate Yaron Guberman. Church and Casanova followed closely behind, with Casanova grabbing USC’s fourth point to seal the win for the second time that day.

Sunday afternoon’s competition allowed all six singles bouts to battle to the end — a welcome change for the Trojans, who saw additional straight-set wins from freshman Pablo Robledo Hoyos, Djuric and Exsted. Following the week’s matches, Exsted was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week, having gone 4-0 across both singles and doubles play.

After a highly successful doubleheader to open its spring season, USC will stay at home for one more San Diego opponent, hosting the No. 8 University of San Diego (1-0) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Women keep up fall momentum in opening wins

Two days later, the Trojan women mirrored the men’s success at David X. Marks Tennis Stadium, starting with an afternoon victory over UC Santa Barbara (0-1).

After reaching the Round of 16 in the NCAA doubles bracket, the No. 51-ranked pair of Hossam and freshman Krisha Mahendran took care of business in their return, beating sophomore Raphaelle Leroux and junior Ekua Youri, 6-4. Senior Emma Charney and freshman Eugenia Zozaya bent but didn’t break in a 7-5 win over freshmen My-Anh Holmes and Isabella Wong, nailing down the doubles point for USC.

Zozaya and Hossam — ranked No. 62 and No. 16, respectively — opened the singles round with two easy victories, putting the Trojans one point away from their first win of the season. While Borruel fell to Gaucho sophomore Lily Pradkin in straight sets, marking USC’s only singles loss all day, sophomore Simone Kay prevailed in her match at 6-3, 7-5, to secure the overall 4-1 victory.

The Trojans’ second match of the day once again ended in their favor — this time over Loyola Marymount University (0-1) — but the road to get there began with a stressful doubles round.

Charney and junior Immi Haddad opened the round with a 6-1 beatdown of graduate Kim-Michaela Zahraj and sophomore Camilia Samel-Druz; however, the Lions’ junior Anastasia Bozova and sophomore Ada Piestrzynska countered with an upset of Hossam and Mahendran, leaving the doubles point down to the final match. 

Fortunately for USC, Fairclough and Borruel — the No. 6-ranked duo in the country, fresh off a run to the NCAA semifinals — were able to hold off another upset attempt by the Lions, downing graduate Lidia Gonzalez and freshman Sofia Perovani for the doubles point.

After the excitement of the doubles round, the singles matches were smooth sailing for the Trojans. Zozaya, Haddad and Hossam all picked up straight-set victories with relative ease, wrapping up a 4-0 win for USC to improve to 2-0 on the day.

Next, the Trojans are set for a road trip to the Grand Canyon State, facing Arizona State on Sunday at noon, followed by Arizona on Monday at noon with the Trojans being both teams’ first match of the season.