USC gets set for regular-season finale

“Seize the moment.”

That is USC men’s tennis head coach Peter Smith’s motto going into the team’s last regular-season match on Friday, in which the No. 4 Trojans (22-2, 5-0 Pac-12) will head to Westwood to take on the No. 3 UCLA Bruins (21-1, 6-0) with the Pac-12 regular-season title on the line.

The teams have faced each other twice this season, splitting the series with 4-3 wins. They first met in the semifinals of the ITA national team indoor championships in Seattle, Wash.

Though the Trojans dropped the doubles point, they fought back in singles play. They tied up the score, allowing sophomore Roberto Quiroz to clinch the match for USC in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker over UCLA’s junior Adrien Puget, handing the Bruins their first and only loss of the season.

Less than a week later, USC hosted UCLA in another tight match, but this time, the Trojans could not overcome their early deficit in doubles. With the score tied at 3-3, junior co-captain Emilio Gomez was left battling UCLA sophomore Marcos Giron, eventually falling in another third-set tiebreaker.

“I think when we beat them up in Seattle, we seized the moment,” Smith said. “And when they beat us here, they seized the moment. Who does it come down to? Does that person have the experience and confidence to come through? Maybe that’s a little bit of luck, but it’s how you start matches and how you finish matches. That comes down to just nerve and backbone and confidence.”

The Trojans will need to start strong in doubles to get an early leg up on the Bruins. Since losing the doubles point to UCLA in their second matchup, Smith has adjusted the doubles lineup to great success.

Junior co-captain Ray Sarmiento and sophomore Yannick Hanfmann, who comprise USC’s top doubles team, have been particularly impressive. They are slotted as the No. 32 doubles pair in the country and are currently riding a four-match win streak.

“Yannick and I have been playing really well,” Sarmiento said. “I think our chemistry on the court is a lot better and we’re communicating a lot better, so we’re playing better.”

Sarmiento recently became the fifth Trojan this season to be named Pac-12 player of the week, while Hanfmann just captured his 17th consecutive win in singles play to stay undefeated on the season.

Hanfmann is also one of only two Trojans to emerge victorious in both of his battles against the Bruins this season. The other, sophomore Eric Johnson, said that the streak provides them a confidence boost going into the match.

“It’s definitely good knowing that we’ve won the last two times,” Johnson said. “But we both may end up playing somebody different than we played last time, so we don’t really know.”

If anything is certain, it’s that the match will be unpredictable. UCLA is coming off a close match against former No. 7 Pepperdine, which went down to the wire.

After conceding the doubles point, the Bruins escaped with a 4-3 victory over the Waves, a team that USC defeated 4-2 at Marks Stadium earlier this season. Though that may give fans reason to believe the Trojans can easily handle the Bruins, Smith is hesitant to jump to conclusions.

“You can make assumptions off that match, but half the time, those assumptions aren’t true,” Smith said. “You could say, ‘Wow, they’re not playing great,’ but they showed they could win a close match probably not playing their best.”

The match, which is set to begin at 3 p.m. at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center, will conclude the regular season and send the Trojans into the Pac-12 tournament in Ojai, Calif.

That being said, the team hopes to end the regular season on a high note and continue increasing their momentum heading into the postseason.

“If we lose the match to get there or we win the match to get there, the only thing that matters to me is that we take a step forward,” Smith said.