No. 19 USC Men Visit Utah For First Pac-12 Clash Of 2019

THIS WEEK

No. 19 USC hits the road for its first Pac-12 match of the season, making the journey to Salt Lake City to take on No. 41 Utah in a 1 p.m. MT matchup on Saturday (March 9).

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 March 5) have the Trojans now at No. 19 in the nation. The latest individual rankings also were released March 5, with seven Trojans still ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team. Sophomore Daniel Cukierman leads the way at No. 6 in the nation in singles. Junior Brandon Holt has popped up at No. 16, with senior Laurens Verboven remains at No. 23. They're followed by fellow seniors Logan Smith at No. 51 and Tanner Smith at No. 55, while freshman Bradley Frye stands at No. 75 and redshirt junior Jake DeVine clocks in at No. 117. In doubles, USC has Holt and Riley Smith now ranked at No. 28 in the land.

SCOUTING UTAH

The No. 41 Utes enter the week at 12-3 overall after beating Old Dominion 4-0 last week. Utah will face UCLA on Friday before facing the Trojans on Saturday. Utah has #64 Dan Little ranked nationally in singles and no ranked double teams. USC is 34-1 all-time against the Utes in a series that dates back to 1962. Last year, USC beat Utah 4-0 in their Pac-12 meeting in Los Angeles.

LAST ACTION

USC defended its home court and turned the tide on its rival UCLA with a 4-1 win over the visiting No. 14 Bruins at Marks Stadium. After taking a string of losses to the Bruins last season, USC displayed dominance in this crosstown clash, grabbing a decisive doubles point and then pinning up singles wins from Jake Sands, Logan Smith and Riley Smith to secure the nonconference win. USC is now 7-5 overall on the year. In doubles, USC got up a break on all courts, gripping 4-2 advantages all at the same time before pressing on to capture the first point of the day. On court three, the freshman-senior combo pack of Bradley Frye and Tanner Smith whipped up a swift 6-2 win over UCLA's Goldberg/Rapp. The Bruins clawed to within a point on courts one and two, but USC seniors Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven locked down the doubles point with a 6-4 win over UCLA's Pereira/Zahraj, and the Trojans were on to singles action with a 1-0 lead on the board. In singles, freshman Jake Sands made an all-out sprint to tug the Trojans ahead 2-0 on a 6-0, 6-4 win over Eric Hahn on court six. USC had snagged first sets on four courts, but the Bruins had the upper hand on two. Brandon Holt would fight back on court one to bring up a third set, but UCLA held its ground on court two at #53 Govin Nanda topped #23 Laurens Verboven to make it 2-1. Fellow senior Logan Smith had a quick response to that, however. He'd swing through UCLA's Patrick Zahraj with a 6-4, 6-3 decision that tugged the Trojans to a 3-1 lead, looking for a clinching win for the Trojan cause. At the No. 4 spot, Riley Smith jumped on his chance to deal out the deciding blow. The junior held strong in his second-set tiebreaker to beat UCLA's Ben Goldberg 6-1, 7-6 (3) and round out USC's victory over the rival Bruins. That suspended tight battles on courts one and five, with Trojans Brandon Holt and Mor Bulis left locked in draws in their respective third and second sets.

WHO'S NEXT?

Riley Smith's match-clinching singles win vs. UCLA made him the seventh Trojan to clinch victory this year. Each of USC's seven wins to date have been secured by a different Trojan. Daniel Cukierman (Cal Poly), Brandon Holt (Florida), Jake Sands (UC Santa Barbara), Logan Smith (UC Davis), Tanner Smith (San Francisco) and Laurens Verboven (South Carolina) are all in the books with a clincher. Who's next?

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.

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