No. 5 USC Men Visit No. 2 Ohio State On Tuesday

THIS WEEK
No. 5 USC is on the road this week, starting things off with a visit to No. 2 Ohio State. The Trojans (5-2) will tangle with the Buckeyes (8-0) at 6 p.m. ET in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday (Feb. 12).

ORACLE/ITA RANKINGS UPDATES
For the 12th straight season, the USC men's tennis team kicked off the new year ranked in the nation's top-10 of the Oracle/ITA rankings, ranked No. 5 in the nation to open the spring. The latest ITA team rankings (released Feb. 6) still have the Trojans locked in as the No. 5 team in the land. The latest individual rankings also were released Feb. 6, with seven Trojans now ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team. Sophomore Daniel Cukierman leads the way at No. 4 in the nation in singles. Senior Laurens Verboven now weighs in at No. 31, followed by fellow seniors Logan Smith at No. 39 and Tanner Smith at No. 50. Junior Brandon Holt has popped up at No. 56, while redshirt junior Jake DeVine clocks in at No. 94 and freshman Bradley Frye stands at No. 121. In doubles, USC has Cukierman and Tanner Smith now ranked at No. 21 in the land.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE
The No. 2 Buckeyes are 8-0 overall after beating Arizona State 6-1 and Georgia 4-0 last week. Ohio State has five players ranked nationally in singles: #2 JJ Wolf, #12 Kyle Seelig, #62 John McNally, #86 Alex Kobelt and #101 Tim Seibert. In doubles, Ohio State has #7 Seelig/Kobelt and #11 Tubert/Joyce in the rankings. USC is 6-4 all-time against the Buckeyes in a series that dates back to 1979. Last year, the Trojans fell 4-3 to the Buckeyes at Marks Stadium.

HOLT SCOOPS UP PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
After USC jumped out to a 3-0 start to 2019, junior Brandon Holt collected the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honors of the Trojans' spring campaign. It was Holt's second career selection for the award. Holt had a powerful run for the Trojans in opening string of victories. The junior captain would get USC out on a winning note in collecting the first doubles win of the new year, winning on court one in USC's historic season-opening dual match against No. 25 South Carolina — played on the courts of the Australian Open in Melbourne. Holt's singles match would be suspended as the Trojans notched a 4-0 win over the Gamecocks. Then, back in Los Angeles, Holt swept through two singles and two doubles victories in USC's winning run at ITA Kick-Off Weekend. He and Riley Smith would continue their trend of snagging an opening doubles victory on court one, and then Holt also grabbed two singles victories on court one. In a 4-0 win over Cal Poly, Holt beat Josh Ortlip 6-4, 6-0 to get USC a 2-0 lead. The next day, Holt upended UC Santa Barbara's #6 Nicolas Moreno de Alboran 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 to carry USC along to a 6-1 victory over the Gauchos at Marks Stadium. Holt is now 8-2 overall in singles play this season, while he and Smith boast a 7-2 record together in doubles.

LAST WEEK
USC was tagged with back-to-back 4-3 losses last week, having led both No. 10 Stanford and California 3-1 in both matches before seeing their opponents make a winning comeback rally in singles. In a top-10 battle against the Cardinal, No. 5 USC stumbled in an exciting down-to-the-wire match at Marks Stadium. Doubles play was a tight affair with Stanford coming up with the opening victory on a. 6-4 decision by Cardinal pair Geller/Rotsaert over USC's top guns Brandon Holt and Riley Smith. The Trojans fired right back with a 6-4 win on court three by #21 Daniel Cukierman and Tanner Smith to put all eyes on court two. There, the Trojans and Cardinal stretched into a deciding tiebreaker, where Stanford's Kumar/Sah stole into an early 4-1 advantage before USC's Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven edged back in. The veteran Trojan pair would take the breaker 8-6 to pin a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard for USC. As singles play unfurled the Trojans got up a set on all courts but two. Stanford would strike first with a 6-0, 6-2 win on court five from Michael Genender over USC's #94 Jake DeVine. USC issued a quick-fire response as #4 Daniel Cukierman whipped up a 6-4, 6-1 win over #81 Alexandre Rotsaert on court two, and USC was back on top 2-1. Next up, it was USC's #56 Brandon Holt coming up with a top-10 takedown of Stanford's #10 Axel Geller on court one, and USC gripped a 3-1 advantage with three courts still going. Those three matches stretched to past sundown, with Stanford sneaking closer with a win on court six from Sangeet Sridhar over USC freshman Jake Sands. The 7-5 (4), 6-4 win made it 3-2 Trojans with three-setters still underway on courts three and four. The Cardinal would get up a break in both third sets, and Stanford was able to fight back for the comeback victory. At the No. 3 spot, it was Stanford's #33 William Genender who upended USC's Riley Smith 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to tie things up 3-3. Then on court four, Stanford's #43 Sameer Kumar finished off a comeback push to beat USC freshman Mor Bulis 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 and wrap the match as a 4-3 Stanford win. The next day, USC got stuck with its second 4-3 loss of the season as the Trojans were upended by visiting California. The Golden Bears got a leg up in this one after USC and Cal split doubles wins on courts one and three. That put it all on court two, which came down to a tiebreaker that saw Cal's #17 Baretto/Kaya edge out USC's Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven 7-6 (5) to plug a point in Cal's column. The day had started on a strong note for the Trojans, who had Brandon Holt and Riley Smith take down Cal's #8 pairing of Brymm/Kikuchi 6-4. Cal fired back and took court three 6-3 on Molloy/Zincirli's decision over USC's #21 Daniel Cukierman and Tanner Smith to leave the decider on court two. WIth a 1-0 deficit for the Trojans on the board, USC looked to bounce back in singles. The early spark for USC came from freshman Jake Sands on court five. Sands stood his ground and churned out a smooth 6-3, 6-2 win to snarl the match score up 1-1. USC would fall in two first-set tiebreakers while court six stretched into a third set, but the Trojans would whip up a 3-1 lead shortly after. At the top spot, #56 Brandon Holt charged past Cal's Jacob Brumm for a 6-1, 6-3 win that made it 2-1. Next it was USC's #4 Daniel Cukierman who hit the finish line, tagging a 6-2, 6-3 win on the board over Cal's Paul Barretto to make it a 3-1 USC advantage. That left three matches underway that were still very much undecided. On court six, Cal struck back with a three-set win to make it 3-2, as Ben Draper pulled out a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 win over USC's Tanner Smith. At the No. 3 spot, USC senior Jack Jaede had forced a third set with a bounceback second-set effort, but Cal's Yuti Kikuchi pulled ahead in the third and claimed a 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4 win that locked the match up 3-3 to bring it down to court four. There, USC's Riley Smith and Cal's Jack Molloy had each snagged a set in a tiebreaker, prompting another nailbiter in the third. Smith and Molloy stayed on serve until Molloy got up a break, 5-3. The Golden Bear would hold on for the winner, clinching the Cal victory with a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (6), 6-3 decider.

AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES
In the first-ever collegiate dual match to be played at a Grand Slam, No. 5 USC showed resilience under a warm Australian sun on its official 2019 opener, gutting out a 4-0 victory over No. 25 South Carolina on the courts of the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Trojans snagged a quick doubles point and looked in position for a swift string of singles wins until the Gamecocks dug in and forced three sets on four courts. USC was able to net straight-set wins from freshman Jake Sands and sophomore Daniel Cukierman before things got tangled, and then Laurens Verboven came through with the clincher to wrap USC's memorable visit to Melbourne and get USC a 1-0 start to the 2019 campaign. The doubles point was a quick fix for the Trojans, who rattled off two swift victories to pocket a 1-0 lead. At the No. 1 spot, Brandon Holt and Riley Smith peeled out to a 6-1 win, putting Daniel Cukierman and Bradley Frye in position to snag the opening point. The sophomore-freshman duo locked in with a 6-2 victory on court three, and the Trojans were off to singles play with the 1-0 advantage in their court. In singles, USC claimed first sets down the line, but the Gamecocks fired back on four courts. At the No. 6 spot, however, USC freshman Jake Sands held firm and scored USC's first singles win of the day on a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jake Beasley to make it 2-0 Trojans. Next, USC's #8 Daniel Cukierman sidestepped a third and closed out a 6-2, 7-5 win over South Carolina's Yancy Davis on court two, and USC was up 3-0 with four courts tangled up in third sets. On court one, Brandon Holt rebounded from dropping the first set in a tiebreaker against #7 Paul Jubb, and the top guns would continue to battle in the third while the finish line neared on other courts. Jack Jaede and Riley Smith were both in tight third sets on courts four and five, respectively, while #19 Laurens Verboven also was in lockstep with South Carolina's Daniel Rodrigues on court three. Finally, Verboven found the finishing touch, getting one last break to clinch the match on his 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win. That suspended the remaining matches, and sends USC home to Los Angeles with a key win to build momentum in the early goings of the 2019 season.

FALL SUCCESS
Several Trojans had impactful falls, with Daniel Cukierman winning the SoCal Intercollegiate title and reaching the Oracle ITA Fall Singles Final, Logan Smith winning the ITA Southwest Regional title, Laurens Verboven claiming the ITA Oracle Masters championship, and Tanner Smith reaching the ITA Southwest Regional final. In November, Jack Jaede would scoop up the Jack Kramer Collegiate singles title with a championship match win over teammate Jake DeVine. DeVine and Bradley Frye also had strong showings at the ITA All-American qualifying rounds.

LAST SEASON
USC went 20-9 overall last year with a run to the NCAA Quarterfinals, finishing the 2018 season ranked No. 11 in the nation. For the first time since 1993, USC men's tennis landed multiple Trojan doubles pairs on the ITA All-America honor roll. It also was 25 years ago that USC last finished a season with more than three ITA All-Americans, as the Trojans boasted four honorees for 2018 in Brandon Holt, Riley Smith, Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven. All but Holt were first-time All-Americans, with Holt adding 2018 singles and doubles All-American honors to his 2017 singles pick from his freshman campaign. Holt and Smith finished 2018 ranked as the No. 9 doubles team in the nation to secure their doubles All-American status, while Jaede and Verboven snagged their first All-American honors as a 5-8 seed in the NCAA Doubles draw as well as a No. 10 final ranking. A three-time All-American, Brandon Holt secured his second singles selection as a 9-16 seed in his second appearance in the NCAA Singles draw. Holt also powered through to the NCAA Round of 16 in singles and in doubles with Smith.

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Players Mentioned

Mor Bulis

Daniel Cukierman

Jake DeVine

Bradley Frye

Brandon Holt

Jack Jaede

Jake Sands

Logan Smith

Riley Smith

Tanner Smith

Laurens Verboven