USC
Indiana
No. 2 Trojans Blank Indiana In ITA Kick-Off Weekend
January 29, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 29, 2011
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- The No. 2 USC men's tennis team capped the ITA Kick-Off Weekend off with a 7-0 victory over the visiting No. 47 Hoosiers of Indiana. The win put the Trojans in the mix for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which is coming up fast in Seattle next month. The win gives the Trojans a 5-0 overall record.
The excitement was underway early in doubles action as USC found themselves behind after Indiana's pair, Jeremy Langer and Santiago Gruter came out ahead of USC's #51 Jaak Poldma and JT Sundling. After falling behind in the first game, USC pair Steve Johnson and Ray Sarmiento rebounded nicely and came away with an 8-2 victor over Josh MacTaggart and Steven Vogl. Tied with only one match left, both teams and the crowd shifted their focus to Court 3 where they saw USC's Daniel Nguyen and Emilio Gomez duke it out with Indiana's Isade Juneau and Will Kendall. Nguyen/Gomez fell behind early 0-3 before snagging a game to make it 1-3, but Juneau/Kendall kept the pressure up as they went on to win two of the next three. Both teams found themselves center stage as their coaches and teammates cheered them on. Down 2-5, Nguyen/Gomez were able to hold serve to come within two. They were able to break the Hoosiers on the next game to come within just one. But once again, Juneau/Kendall wouldn't back down and broke the Trojans to go up 6-4. Nguyen/Gomez, motivated by their teammates and the crowd, rallied and never looked back. They went on to win the next four games in come-from-behind fashion, finishing with a final score of 8-6 and giving the Trojans the first point of the match.
After a disappointing loss in doubles, USC's Poldma came out strong against Gruter, defeating him 6-2, 6-0 on court 3. The next three singles matches finished within a minute of each other as Peter Lucassen defeated Juneau 6-1, 6-0 on court 5. Seconds later, Sarmiento tacked on another point and the game-winner as he came out ahead of Claes Goransson 6-2, 6-0. And right after that match was called, Gomez, not showing any signs of fatigue after his long doubles match, added another point with a 6-0, 6-1 decision over Vogl. Over on court 1, Johnson went on to win his match against Langer 6-2, 6-3. The last match of the day featured Nguyen and MacTaggart on court 2. After a 6-4 decision in the first set, Nguyen picked up the pace and came out ahead of MacTaggart 6-0 in the second set.
USC's next competition brings San Diego to town for a 1:30 p.m. match on Friday (Feb. 4) at Marks Stadium.
ITA KICK-OFF WEEKEND
Championship Match
#2 USC 7, #46 Indiana 0
Jan. 29, 2011 - Marks Stadium
DOUBLES
(1) Johnson/Sarmiento (USC) def. MacTaggart/Vogl (IU) -- 8-2
(2) Langer/Gruter (UI) def. Poldma/Sundling (USC) - 8-3
(3) Gomez/Nguyen (USC) def. Kendall Juneau (UI) -- 8-6
USC wins doubles point
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
SINGLES
(1) #6 Steve Johnson (USC) def. Jeremy Langer (IU) -- 6-2, 6-3
(2) #18 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Josh MacTaggart (IU) -- 6-4, 6-0
(3) #91 Jaak Poldma (USC) def. Santiago Gruter (IU) -- 6-2, 6-0
(4) #84 Ray Sarmiento (USC) def. Claes Goransson (IU) -- 6-2, 6-0*
(5) #94 Peter Lucassen (USC) def. Isade Juneau (IU) -- 6-1, 6-0
(6) Emilio Gomez (USC) def. Stephen Vogl (IU) -- 6-0, 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 5, 4*, 6, 1, 2
Consolation Match
#42 BYU 4, #52 San Diego State 0
Jan. 29, 2011 - Los Angeles, Calif. (Marks Stadium)
DOUBLES
(1) Urbina/Kawka (BYU) def. Vaglietti/Nicholas (SDSU) - 8-6
(2) Smith/Shubert (BYU) vs. Pulgar/Florez (SDSU) - 7-7 susp.
(3) Hwang/Batrakov (BYU) def. Endert/Feliz (SDSU) - 8-4
BYU wins doubles point.
Order of finish: 3, 1
SINGLES
(1) #110 Evan Urbina (BYU) vs. Javier Pulgar (SDSU) -- 3-6, 6-5 susp.
(2) Spencer Smith (BYU) def.Giovanni Vaglietti (SDSU) -- 6-3, 6-2
(3) Thomas Shubert (BYU) vs. Andre Feliz (SDSU) -- 7-5, 4-3 susp.
(4) Georgy Batrakov (BYU) def.Tim Schulz van Endert (SDSU) -- 6-2, 6-3*
(5) # 88 Patrick Kawka (BYU) def. Juan Florez (SDSU) -- 4-0 def. (inj.)
(6) Daniel Hwang (BYU) vs. Hunter Nicholas (SDSU) -- 6-1, 2-6, 2-1 susp.
Order of finish: 5, 2, 4*
Players Mentioned
