No. 10 USC Men Stay Home For Final Two Regular-Season Matches

THIS WEEK

No. 10 USC puts the finishing touches on the regular season this week, staying on home turf for the last stretch before postseason action takes off the following week. On Friday (April 19), USC will celebrate its five graduating Trojans — Jake DeVine, Jack Jaede, Logan Smith, Tanner Smith and Laurens Verboven — in a Senior Day ceremony after the doubles point is completed in USC's 3 p.m. match against No. 24 Arizona. On Saturday (April 20), the Trojans turn to cap off the regular season with a 3 p.m. faceoff against No. 27 Arizona State. A victorious weekend will secure at least the No. 2 seed for USC at the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament, held April 24-27 in Ojai, Calif.

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 April 16) have the Trojans now at No. 10 in the nation. The latest individual rankings also were released April 16, with seven Trojans ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team. Junior Brandon Holt leads the way at No. 10 in the nation in singles. Sophomore Daniel Cukierman stays at No. 16, with senior Laurens Verboven at No. 26. They're followed by fellow senior Tanner Smith at No. 59, senior Logan Smith at No. 77, freshman Bradley Frye at No. 97 and redshirt junior Jake DeVine at No. 118. In doubles, USC has Holt and Riley Smith now ranked at No. 8 in the land.

SCOUTING UA

The No. 24 Wildcats are 17-4 overall and 3-3 in Pac-12 play after a 4-0 win over Utah last week. Arizona has no players ranked nationally in singles. In doubles, Arizona has #71 Karpovets/Ziverts in the national rankings. In a series dating back to 1934, USC is 101-2 all-time against Arizona after notching a 4-0 win during Pac-12 play last year in Tucson.

SCOUTING ASU

The No. 27 Sun Devils are 13-10 overall and 4-2 in Pac-12 play after a 4-0 win over Utah last week. ASU has #75 Nathan Ponwith ranked nationally in singles. In doubles, ASU has #11 Kellovsky/Ponwith in the national rankings. In a series dating back to 1953, USC is 56-9 all-time against ASU after a 4-0 win in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge last month in Indian Wells. Last year, USC notched a 4-1 win during Pac-12 play in Tempe and a 4-0 win in the 2018 Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals in Ojai.

LAST ACTION

USC swept through two Pac-12 foes last week. After eight consecutive road matches, the Trojans were back on home turf and made themselves right back at home. USC first silenced Washington 4-0 and then replicated that with a 4-0 sweep of No. 48 Oregon. Both matches featured a new-look doubles lineup, with Brandon Holt and Laurens Verboven teaming up for the first time together. Playing at the No. 1 spot, the new pairing wound up with suspended matches on both days, leading in both cases. On court two, brothers Riley and Tanner Smith also paired up for the first time in their Trojan careers and were quite successful with wins on both days. At the No. 3 spot, Daniel Cukierman and Jack Jaede also joined forces for the first time and were also victorious with a winning weekend. Against the Huskies, courts two and three doubles got the job done for the early 1-0 lead. In singles, Jake Sands cleaned up quickly on court six before Tanner Smith got a win on court five. Cukierman got the clincher with his straight-set win on court one to make it a 4-0 sweep. The next day, after another winning effort in doubles, Sands again got the first singles win of the day for another 2-0 advantage. Holt came through next from court one, and then Tanner Smith had the clincher to round out two doubles and two singles wins on the week for the redshirt senior.

SPREADING THE WEALTH

Riley Smith's match-clinching singles win vs. UCLA on Feb. 22 made him the seventh Trojan to clinch victory this year. In fact, USC's first seven wins had each 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) all claimed a clincher apiece in USC opening stretch. Coming through with the double? That was freshman Sands, who snagged his second match-clinching victory in USC's road win at Utah. He's since clinched his third match (ASU), while Verboven also has three clinchers to his name now after netting the winner at Stanford. Meanwhile, the newest Trojan clincher is freshman Mor Bulis, who clinched his first match as a Trojan with a big win from court six at No. 3 Texas.

BY THE NUMBERS

USC's winningest player to date is sophomore Daniel Cukierman, who has racked up 28 singles wins and still stands as the lone Trojan in the 20-win zone. Closing in on that club is Jake DeVine with 18 singles wins so far. In the doubles realm, two Trojan duos have hit double digits in the win column. Brandon Holt and Riley Smith hold 13 wins together, while Cukierman and Tanner Smith lead the charge with 14 win as a doubles tandem. In dual matches, Cukierman and Holt are out front with 12 dual-match singles wins apiece, two steps ahead of Jake Sands' 10.

BULIS BREAKS THROUGH

USC freshman Mor Bulis dealt the deciding blow for the Trojans in their 4-2 upset of No. 3 Texas in Austin. For his heroics, he was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. Standing tall on court six, Bulis stepped up to secure his first match-clinching singles win with a 6-2, 7-5 decision over Texas' Chih Chi Huang. Bulis' victory sealed the deal on a 4-2 win over the Longhorns, and claimed USC's second win over a top-5 opponent this season. Bulis, who joined the Trojans this spring, is now 4-4 overall in singles play after this clincher in Austin. He's the second Trojan to be named Pac-12 Player of the Week this season, following two selections for Brandon Holt, as USC now boasts 53 all-time picks for the conference's weekly award.

HOLT DOUBLES UP ON PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS

Junior Brandon Holt has now snagged two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors, running his career total up to three and USC's all-time count to 52. On Jan. 29, Holt was honored after USC's 3-0 start to the season, in which Holt collected 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. Then, back in Los Angeles, Holt swept through two singles and two doubles victories in USC's winning run at ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Most recently, Holt snagged three singles wins — two over ranked opponents — and went 2-1 in doubles during USC's run to the final at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge in Indian Wells. Holt is now 15-5 overall in singles play this season, while he and Smith have posted a 13-5 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 sent 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