When No. 20 USC men’s tennis stepped onto its home court Friday afternoon, the bitter taste of defeat still hung in the air. 

A week prior, the Trojans (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) came inches away from a massive upset against No. 2 Ohio State (25-3, 10-1), matching the Buckeyes blow for blow to set up a winner-take-all singles matchup between both squads’ top players. In the end, USC freshman Branko Djuric fell just short of glory, narrowly losing a three-set battle against Ohio State junior Aidan Kim, the No. 12 collegiate player in the country.

With a pair of critical Big Ten matches on the horizon, the Trojans could have either let that heartbreak crush them or let it fuel them; they chose the latter.

In its final homestand of the season, USC cruised to back-to-back victories, sweeping Northwestern (15-12, 3-9) 4-0 on Friday before taking down No. 15 Illinois (20-6, 9-3) 4-1 on Sunday. The win over the Fighting Illini marked the Trojans’ highest-ranked victory of the season, providing a major boost to their resume as the postseason approaches.

Trojans tame Wildcats with ease

Though Friday’s matchup with Northwestern ended in a USC sweep, it seemed to be trending in the opposite direction at the start. The Trojans’ No. 2 pairing of sophomore Andrin Casanova and graduate student Jack McCarthy suffered a lopsided 6-0 loss in the first doubles match of the day, marking the first time in 16 doubles matches this season that Casanova and McCarthy had been on either end of a sweep.

However, that would be the only loss USC took all day. Freshman Max Exsted and sophomore Nathan Trouve answered with a 6-4 victory on court one, while sophomore Connor Church and Djuric were close behind with a 7-5 win to seal the doubles point for the Trojans.

From there, the singles matches were all academic, with USC preventing the Wildcats from taking a single set. Trouve, who ranks No. 74 in the country, took down Northwestern junior Greyson Casey 6-1, 6-2 to improve to 11-4 on the season. McCarthy followed with a 6-1, 6-0 pummeling of senior Chad Miller, putting the Trojans one point away from victory.

After all four of USC’s remaining players won their first sets, it was sophomore Neils Hoffmann who finished his second set first, beating freshman Jacob Golden 6-2, 6-1 to finish off the Trojans’ 4-0 victory on the day. The match marked Hoffmann’s third straight win in singles — the third time he’s accomplished said feat since the start of the spring season.

Djuric powers marquee victory over Illinois

While Friday’s matchup came against one of the Big Ten’s weaker teams in Northwestern, Sunday’s bout with Illinois presented a much tougher opponent. Entering the match, USC was just 1-3 on the season against top-15 competition, with the one win coming against then-No. 15 UC Berkeley (14-12, 6-7) — a team that now sits at No. 47.

However, the opponent hardly seemed to make a difference for the Trojans, who stormed out to an early lead in the doubles round. Casanova and McCarthy earned a 6-3 win over the nation’s No. 63 duo, seniors William Mroz and Kenta Miyoshi, while Church and Djuric followed suit with a 6-4 victory to clinch the doubles point.

In singles, McCarthy replicated his success from earlier in the weekend, downing freshman Sasha Colleu 6-4, 6-2 to give USC a 2-0 lead. Djuric kept the ball rolling with a stunning 6-2, 6-4 victory over Miyoshi, the No. 17 player in the country, for his first individual win against a ranked player this season.

Though the Trojans weren’t able to mirror the 4-0 score from Friday, with Trouve falling 6-2, 7-5 to No. 23 freshman Gabriel Debru, they nevertheless managed to bring home their second win of the weekend, with Exsted clinching the 4-1 victory in a 6-4, 6-3 battle with Mroz.

With just two matches left before the postseason, USC has already secured a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament and can earn anywhere from the No. 3 to No. 6 seed depending on the final weekend’s results. The Trojans will cap off their regular season with a road trip to two former Pac-12 opponents, playing Washington (8-15, 2-9) on Friday at 4 p.m. and Oregon (14-8, 5-6) on Sunday at 11 a.m.