No. 5 USC Men Report For Duty At ITA National Team Indoors

THIS WEEK

No. 5 USC has set up camp in Chicago ready to engage in action at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships for the 11th consecutive season. The Trojans (5-3) have been seeded at No. 13 for this year's run at the event, lining them up for a first-round matchup against No. 4 seed Florida (5-0) at 6:40 p.m. CT on Friday (Feb. 15). On Saturday (Feb. 16), USC would face off against either No. 5 seed Texas (9-0) or No. 12 seed Illinois (4-1).

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 FLORIDA

The No. 4 Gators are 5-0 overall after a 4-3 win over TCU last week. Florida has five players ranked nationally in singles: #20 Oliver Crawford, #27 Andy Andrade, #46 Johannes Ingildsen, #67 Sam Riffice and #109 Duarte Vale. In doubles, Florida has #3 Berdusco/Ingildsen, #10 Andrade/Crawford and #35 Crawford/Riffice in the rankings. USC is 7-3 all-time against the Gators in a series that dates back to 1971. The teams last faced on Jan. 30, 2016 in Westwood, Calif., with USC recording a 4-3 victory over Florida.

THIS YEAR'S INDOOR FIELD

The 2019 ITA National Team Indoor Championship brings together the winners of ITA Kick-Off Weekend events around the nation. USC is through to Indoors for the 11th straight season after another victorious run on ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The Trojans have received a No. 13 seed into this year's tournament, which features a winners bracket and a consolation bracket once the eight first-round matches have been decided. The top seed in the draw is Ohio State (9-0), while Mississippi State (6-0) has the No. 2 seed. The rest of the field's seeding includes: No. 3 Wake Forest (9-1), No. 4 Florida (5-0), No. 5 Texas (9-0), No. 6 UCLA (3-1), No. 7 North Carolina (5-1), No. 8 Virginia (7-1), No. 9 Stanford (5-1), No. 10 Baylor (8-0), No. 11 Notre Dame (8-1), No. 12 Illinois (4-1), No. 14 Columbia (3-0), No. 15 TCU (4-2) and No. 16 Tulane (4-3).

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 ACTION

USC took a road loss at No. 2 Ohio State on Tuesday, falling 5-0 to the highly ranked Buckeyes in Columbus. After a tight doubles point went the way of the hosts, the Trojans were dealt three straight-set singles losses to seal defeat. With its third straight loss, USC goes to 5-3 overall on the year. In doubles, A neck-and-neck battle on court three saw Ohio State's Tuber/McNally get a late burst to beat USC's #21 Daniel Cukierman and Tanner Smith 7-5. The remaining two matches also went down to the wire, with court two's matchup between USC's Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven and Ohio State's Kobelt/Trotter going to a tiebreaker. There, the Buckeyes prevailed to win it 7-6 (4) and suspend action on court one with a breaker on the horizon. With a 1-0 advantage on the board, the host Buckeyes stayed the course in singles. At the No. 6 spot, Ohio State made it 2-0 when Hunter Tubert pushed on to a 6-1, 6-4 win over USC freshman Mor Bulis. Court five saw an identical score in Ohio State's favor, as #86 Alex Kobelt registered another win for the hosts in beating Riley Smith. That had Ohio State a win away from sealing it, and the Buckeyes would ensure victory with a bang-bang finish, picking up wins on courts three and one in close succession to make it a 5-0 final. On court three, Ohio State's #62 John McNally topped USC senior Jack Jaede 6-1, 6-3 to clinch it just before the Buckeyes' top gun #2 JJ Wolf handed USC's #54 Brandon Holt a 6-4, 6-1 defeat to end the action in Ohio.

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.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mor Bulis

Daniel Cukierman

Jake DeVine

Bradley Frye

Brandon Holt

Jack Jaede

Jake Sands

Logan Smith

Riley Smith

Tanner Smith

Laurens Verboven