THIS WEEK: The No. 3 USC men's tennis team settles back home at Marks Stadium this week with one match on the agenda. The Trojans (13-2) will play host to No. 12 Pepperdine at 3 p.m. on Friday (March 8) in an effort to get a win streak going.

 

 

ITA RANKING UPDATES

The USC men opened the season slotted as the No. 2 team in the nation after the Trojans made history with four consecutive NCAA team championships. Now ranked No. 3 in the latest ITA national team poll (released March 5), the Trojans also boast more than a full lineup of Trojans on the ITA singles list (released Feb. 26). A whopping eight Trojans are locked into the rankings, led by junior Emilio Gomez at No. 4 and junior All-American Ray Sarmiento at No. 14. Sophomore All-American Roberto Quiroz is next in line at No. 27, followed by sophomore Eric Johnson at No. 51. Sophomore Yannick Hanfmann, too, has a top-100 spot, as the clincher of the 2012 NCAA Championship holds down No. 64. Freshman Max de Vroome clocks in at No. 88, with junior Michael Grant at No. 110 sophomore Jonny Wang at No. 119.

 

SCOUTING PEPPERDINE

The No. 12 Waves enter the week at 9-2 overall with a Wednesday match against Michigan to play before visiting USC on Friday. Pepperdine has four players ranked nationally in singles: #7 Sebastian Fanselow, #73 Alex Sarkissian, #83 Finn Tearney and #87 Francis Alcantara. In doubles, Pepperdine has #27 Alcantara/Tearney. USC is 44-13 all-time against Pepperdine after a 6-1 win over the Waves last season in Malibu.

 

LAST WEEK

USC sped through doubles play and on to five straight singles wins to register a 6-1 victory over its No. 36 host San Diego last week. Junior Emilio Gomez celebrated his highest career singles ranking with a solid win that stood as the clincher for the Trojans, as #4 Gomez beat Torero Thibaut Visy 6-3, 6-2 on court two to notch USC's 13th win of the year. The Trojans started their sunny day in San Diego with a sweep through doubles play to drum up the first point of the match. USC featured new pairings for 2013 in this one, and the new crews were working together well against the Toreros. Freshman-sophomore combo Max de Vroome and Eric Johnson drilled an 8-1 win at the No. 3 spot to kick off the winning push for USC. Meanwhile, at No. 2, cousins Emilio Gomez and Roberto Quiroz teamed up for the first time this season and got right back to their winning groove with an 8-2 win to sew up the first point of the match for USC. At the No. 1 spot, USC had Michael Grant and Ray Sarmiento paired up for the first time, but with the point secured on wins at Nos. 2 and 3, Grant/Sarmiento's match was suspended in order to launch the match into singles action. USC's singles competition got a boost from the No. 6 spot, where #119 sophomore Jonny Wang whipped up a 6-0, 6-1 win over Andrew Carlisle to take the Trojans ahead 2-0 in the match. Wang was the first to the finish line by a long shot, as the other matches were still very much pending. USC had grabbed the first sets in three other matches, trailed in one and was going to a first-set tiebreaker in the last. Ray Sarmiento would come through next, pushing past Romain Kalaydjian 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 1 spot and lifting USC within reach, up 3-0. That set up Gomez for the clincher, followed by a victory on court five from Max de Vroome. Two three-setters were still raging on at that point. USC's #27 Roberto Quiroz, who had slipped up in his first-set tiebreaker with #82 Clarke Spinosa, forced a third set and went into a 10-point tiebreaker to decide things. He'd pull out the win 10-7 in the breaker, and USC was up 6-0 on its hosts. San Diego would get a point on the board in the final match of the day. In a third-set tiebreak with USC's #51 Eric Johnson, Pugliese managed the late push to victory and beat Johnson with a 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (5) decision that wrapped up the day as a 6-1 USC victory.

 

PACIFIC COAST DOUBLES WRAPUP

In their first week teamed up as a doubles pair for the Trojans, USC freshman Max de Vroome and sophomore Eric Johnson rolled up seven straight wins before falling in the championship match at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships in La Jolla, Calif. After a dual-match win together to start the run, de Vroome/Johnson ripped through six consecutive wins at the tournament to reach the final against UCLA's Giron/Novikov. The Bruins would edge out the Trojans in the title match in three sets. The Trojan duo of de Vroome/Johnson were joined by several teammates also in tandem at the tourney, but they were the longest lasting pair to represent USC this weekend. USC's Michael Grant and Jonny Wang fell in the Round of 32, as did Emilio Gomez and Robert Quiroz, as well as the player-coach pairing of junior Ray Sarmiento and volunteer assistant Peter Lucassen.

 

INDOOR ADVENTURES

USC's first loss of the 2013 season came to top-ranked and top-seeded Virginia in the championship match at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle last week. The tight 4-2 loss to the Cavaliers snapped a 20-match winning streak held by the Trojans dating back through USC's run to the 2012 NCAA Championship, where the Trojans beat Virginia 4-2 in last year's national championship match. USC was looking to defend its 2012 ITA National Indoor Championship, but the highly ranked Cavaliers stole away this year's title thanks to some strong wins at the top of the lineup. In the semifinals of the tourney, USC captured a dramatic win over crosstown rival UCLA, edging out the No. 3 Bruins with a 4-3 comeback victory capped by a heroic third-set tiebreaker win from sophomore Roberto Quiroz. The Bruins had the Trojans in a tough spot in a match replete with momentum shifts, but USC's gutsy comeback efforts pulled the Trojans through in the clutch. In order to get to that semi, the Trojans first rolled through No. 15 Texas A&M with a 4-0 sweep and then took down No. 7 Kentucky 4-1 in the quarterfinals. Yannick Hanfmann would finish the tourney undefeated in singles play, going 3-0 to extend the sophomore's singles win streak out to eight in a row. He also had the clincher against the Aggies to help spark his stretch of straight-set wins. He was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for his strength in Seattle. Earning All-Tournament Team honors was Yannick Hanfmann for No. 4 singles and Eric Johnson for No. 6 singles.

 

PLENTY OF PAC-12 PUNCH

Just three weeks into the fall season, USC had two Pac-12 Player of the Week winners the books. Junior Emilio Gomez opened up the honor roll for the Trojans with his second career pick on Jan. 29. Gomez held down the No. 1 singles position with precision as the USC men made a winning run as host of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Gomez won in straight sets in both his singles matches, lifting USC to 3-0 leads against both San Diego State and Fresno State. He was similarly strong in the doubles realm, teaming up with Eric Johnson in the ITA Kick-Off final for an 8-1 victory that sparked USC's winning run in the match so qualify the Trojans for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Freshman Max de Vroome would make it back-to-back USC wins as he picked up his first career Pac-12 Player of the Week award after extending his win streaks in singles and doubles with solid victories in USC's five matches in a six-day period. De Vroome continued his success with teammate Roberto Quiroz in pounding out five straight doubles wins last week. In singles, de Vroome also added five more wins to hold seven in a row thanks to his five straight-set wins on the singles courts. De Vroome had the clinching wins in both USC victories in a doubleheader against Cal Poly and UC Irvine early in the week, and would go on to wrap up a winning week with his victories against Texas, San Francisco and LMU as the week progressed.

 

KICK-OFF POWER

USC endured plenty of adjustments to changing weather patterns in Los Angeles and came away with two 4-0 sweeps of opponents at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. On the first day, teams moved indoors to courts in Riverside in order to stay on schedule. There, the Trojans posted a clean sheet against No. 66 San Diego State in winning doubles and then tacking up three straight-set singles wins, with the clincher coming from #121 sophomore Jonny Wang at the No. 4 spot. The next day, USC played out the ITA Kick-Off final against No. 69 Fresno State on three courts at Marks Stadium. Thanks to Max de Vroome and Roberto Quiroz' tiebreaker win on court one, USC squeaked out the doubles point. Emilio Gomez and Jonny Wang had given USC the advantage with an 8-1 win at the No. 2 position, but USC lost at No. 3. In singles, though, the Trojans showed fewer signs of slacking. De Vroome and Gomez both streaked ahead to victory, and then Quiroz wrapped up the weekend with the clincher on court three to keep USC a perfect 2-0 in the early goings of 2013.

 

STRENGTH AT SHERWOOD

The winner of last year's Sherwood Collegiate Cup doubles championship, Ray Sarmiento added a singles title to his resume thanks to a series of wins over UCLA opponents in this 2013 edition of the individual tourney in Thousand Oaks, Calif, last weekend. Sarmiento raged through straight sets throughout his singles draw until the final, where the junior lost the first before making his comeback win to beat UCLA's Adrien Puget in the title match. USC also had a spot in the doubles final, but Trojans Emilio Gomez and Eric Johnson were upended in the final by third-seeded Bruin pair Giron/Novikov. The Trojans had eight players on the docket in singles and four doubles teams in the mix for USC's first competition of 2013. Four Trojan sophomores -- Sarmiento, Roberto Quiroz, Yannick Hanfmann and Johnson -- reached the singles quarterfinals, but only Sarmiento emerged from that group as he set his course toward the championship. So, too did the Trojan pack four teams into the doubles quarterfinal round, with all but one notching wins to move into the semifinals. That set up an all-Trojan semi between Gomez /Johnson and Hanfmann/Sarmiento to guarantee a USC team in the final. Gomez/Johnson would advance to the title match to take on No. 3 seeded Bruins Giron/Novikov, who had edged out Trojans de Vroome/Quiroz in their semifinal collision. Gomez/Johnson took the Bruins down to the wire, but fell 8-7 (4) in the doubles final.

 

A GOOD DAY ON CLAY

USC sophomore Roberto Quiroz showed his singles strength in the fall in cruising to the crown at the USTA Clay Court Invitational in Orlando, Fla., topping off his trip with a 6-1, 6-3 championship win over his opponent from Duke. He also reached the doubles semifinals with teammate Yannick Hanfmann. The Florida tournament consisted of several draws of singles and doubles competition. The Trojans had a strong group in the Gold Draw, led by eventual champ Quiroz. Sophomore Hanfmann worked his way to the semifinals in the draw, falling to Quiroz' title match opponent Michael Redlicki. Freshman Max de Vroome and sophomore Jonny Wang fell in the first round. Quiroz and Hanfmann both opened their runs with straight-set victories. Quiroz would keep that streak alive as he rolled to the title, which Hanfmann was upended in the semis.

 

BAY WATCH

Trojan tennis reigned supreme at the Battle in the Bay Classic in San Francisco during the fall with a sweep of singles and doubles titles. The big winner in the Bay Area was USC sophomore Eric Johnson, who stormed to the singles crown with a dramatic three-set win over his freshman teammate Max de Vroome. Johnson also hoisted the doubles trophy with teammate Yannick Hanfmann after a successful run through the doubles draw. Fourth-seeded Eric Johnson posted straight-set wins in his first three matches en route to today's semifinals. There he dispatched a San Diego foe to take a spot in the singles final against teammate de Vroome. The two Trojans tangled through three sets before Johnson grabbed the third-set tiebreaker for a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 win that earned the sophomore the singles crown. De Vroome took the spot in the title match with another all-Trojan face-off in the semifinal, where the freshman faced sophomore Jonny Wang, who had also made a strong run through the singles draw. In doubles, Wang and de Vroome had paired up but taken an early tight loss in the first round. Their Trojan cohorts Johnson and Yannick Hanfmann, meanwhile, pinned up two powerful wins to move into the semifinals. There, sophomores Hanfmann and Johnson gutted out a 9-8 (1) win over a pair from Pacific to earn a place in the final. Hanfmann/Johnson went up against a duo from Stanford in the championship bout, taking out the Cardinal with an 8-4 decision to claim the title and spark an all-out winning day for sophomore Johnson.

 

LAST SEASON

In 2012, USC seniors Steve Johnson and Daniel Nguyen helped anchor the Trojans to a historic run of four consecutive NCAA championships. Johnson finished his Trojan career as arguably the most successful collegiate player in history, having claimed back-to-back NCAA Singles Championships and closing out 2012 on a 72-match singles winning streak. Led by head coach Peter Smith, the 2012 Trojans lost just one match during the regular season, rebounding strong to win the first Pac-12 Tournament Championship and rolling on to successfully defend its previous three NCAA titles, taking its fourth in a row to finish 33-1 overall on the year. Top-seeded USC won a heart-stopping championship match against No. 3 seed Virginia, with the clincher in the 4-3 win coming from freshman Yannick Hanfmann in a third-set tiebreaker. With the 2012 title, USC became the first team since Stanford's 1995-98 teams to win four consecutive national championships. At the end of the year, Johnson had earned his seventh career ITA All-American nods, joined by freshman Roberto Quiroz and sophomore Ray Sarmiento with All-American status in 2012.