Trojans sweep Cardinal in tough challenge


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Sophomore tennis player Stefan Dostanic celebrates near the net during is doubles match against Stanford.
Sophomore Stefan Dostanic celebrates during his 6-1 win with doubles partner junior Bradley Frye. (Amanda Chou | Daily Trojan)

After the No. 11 USC men’s tennis team’s  5-2 win in San Diego against the Toreros, the Trojans returned home to sweep the Stanford Cardinal 7-0 Tuesday. 

USC is picking up the pace during the start of their Pac-12 conference campaign. The currently undefeated pair of sophomore Stefan Dostanic and junior Bradley Frye quickly beat junior Alexandre Rotsaert and freshman Arthur Fery in a 6-1 win. Then, the No. 1 doubles team in the nation, USC senior Daniel Cukierman and redshirt senior Riley Smith pulled out an impressive 6-2 win against freshman Tristan Boyer and senior Axel Geller. 

The win secured the doubles point for the Trojans as the match was suspended between the pair of junior Jake Sands and freshman Lodewijk Weststrate against Stanford’s sophomore Neel Rajesh and senior Timothy Sah.

Head coach Brett Masi attributes his team’s doubles success primarily to Dostanic and Frye’s authority on the courts as a pair.

“Bradley Frye and Stefan Dostanic, they are kind of leading the charge right now with how well they are playing for one [another] and just their energy and their level,” Masi said. “From the word go, they are just being very solid, they are doing the right things.” 

During the singles matchups the Trojans once again swept the Cardinal. 

Last week’s Pac-12 men’s tennis player of the week Bradley Frye was able to beat No. 119 Boyer easily in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. However, that was the only dominant win of USC’s singles matches, with most of the other matches going down to the wire. One of the most clutch performances of the afternoon was No. 19 Smith upsetting No. 3 Rotsaert in a crucial tiebreaker after tightly losing the second set, 6-3, 6-7(5), 1-0 (12-10). 

Coach Masi emphasized Smith’s perseverance and resilience in his win against one of the top singles players in the country.

“Luckily, Riley [Smith] was able to finish that match out,” Masi said. “I know just for himself, he really wanted that win. That guy [Rotsaert] has been a top 10 player in college tennis, so for[Smith] that’s awesome.”

Similarly No. 104 Dostanic pulled off his own upset when he beat No. 94 Fery in a closely-contested second set, 6-1, 7-5. No. 1 singles player in the nation Cuckierman was also in a tough matchup against No. 20 Geller where he barely won the first set 7-5, but Geller retired in the second set while Cuckierman was up 2-0. In the fifth position, Weststrate was able to get away with the win despite the fierce challenge of Sah in the second set, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. Finally, the visit from the Cardinal ended at court six, where Sands had a close match against fifth-year William Genesen. Sands prevailed in two back-to-back hard-fought sets, 7-5, 7-5. 

Despite the close matchups in singles, coach Masi applauded the entire team’s mentality while facing the Cardinal.

“I think the biggest thing was to keep our mental focus to finish[Stanford] off and win the match 7-0,” said Masi about the team’s mindset during Tuesday’s matchup. “[It] makes a statement that we are ready to get going and play the right tennis.”
As they continue through Pac-12 conference play, the Trojans are planning on finishing the finals months of the season on a high note. USC now heads down to the state of Arizona this weekend to face conference rivals No. 15 Arizona in Tucson on Friday, March 26, and then No. 19 Arizona State in Tempe on Sunday, March 28.