No. 11 USC Men Return To Marks Stadium For Two Pac-12 Tilts

THIS WEEK

No. 11 USC is finally back on home turf, having played just one home match in the past two months. After eight consecutive matches away from Marks Stadium, the Trojans hosts two conference foes this week. On Friday (April 12), USC (13-7, 3-1 Pac-12) will take on Washington in a 3 p.m. match. On Saturday (April 13), the Trojans host No. 48 Oregon at 1 p.m.

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 9) have the Trojans now at No. 11 in the nation. The latest individual rankings also were released April 9, with seven Trojans ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team. Junior Brandon Holt leads the way at No. 12 in the nation in singles. Sophomore Daniel Cukierman now sits at No. 16, with senior Laurens Verboven at No. 25. They're followed by fellow senior Tanner Smith at No. 58, freshman Bradley Frye at No. 83, senior Logan Smith at No. 87 and redshirt junior Jake DeVine at No. 117. In doubles, USC has Holt and Riley Smith now ranked at No. 11 in the land.

SCOUTING UW

The Huskies are 6-13 overall and 1-3 in Pac-12 play after 4-0 losses at Arizona and ASU last week. Washington has no players ranked nationally in singles. In doubles, UW has #75 Davis/Foley in the national rankings. In a series dating back to 1963, USC is 29-5 all-time against Washington after notching a 4-0 win during Pac-12 play last year in Seattle.

SCOUTING UO

The No. 48 Ducks are 13-5 overall and 1-3 in Pac-12 play after falling 4-0 at ASU and 4-1 at Arizona last week. Oregon has #10 Thomas Laurent ranked nationally in singles. In doubles, Oregon has #79 Coste/Gentry in the national rankings. In a series dating back to 1972, USC is 24-0 all-time against Oregon after a 4-3 win during Pac-12 play last year in Eugene.

LAST ACTION

USC was edged out in a wild Pac-12 matchup in Westwood, falling 4-3 to crosstown rival No. 13 UCLA at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins had snagged the doubles point, but USC would move out ahead with singles wins from Mor Bulis and Laurens Verboven. The tug-of-war continued, and the match evened up twice more to bring up the decider on court four. There, and intense third-set tiebreaker ensued, with UCLA pulling off the clincher to net the win. UCLA grabbed the early advantage with doubles wins on courts one and two. At the No. 2 spot, Bruins Nanda/Rapp topped USC's Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven with a 6-3 decision. Then, the Bruins notched a 1-0 lead in the match when #6 Cressy/Smith posted a 6-4 win over USC's #14 Brandon Holt and Riley Smith, suspending a tight battle on court three. In singles, the Trojan fired back with a straight-set win by Mor Bulis on court six. The USC newcomer took down UCLA's Mathew Tsolakyan 7-6 (2), 6-1 to level things at 1-1. Next, senior #23 Verboven drilled out a 6-3, 6-4 win over UCLA's #46 Govind Nanda, and the Trojans were up on their hosts 2-1. The Bruins would respond and snarl it back up next, however, with #49 Keegan Smith beating USC's #13 Daniel Cukierman 7-6 (4), 6-3 on court two. At the top spot, USC's #11 Holt edged the Trojans back ahead 3-2 with his 6-2, 7-6 (2) victory over UCLA's #21 Maxime Cressy. That left a couple three-setters raging, and the Bruins would pull even once again with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win by Ben Goldberg over USC's #74 Logan Smith. From there, all eyes turned to an all-out battle on court four. There, UCLA's Patrick Zahraj had claimed the first set in a tiebreaker, only to see USC's Riley Smith tally a 7-5 win in the second. In the third, the rivals stayed toe-to-toe and another tiebreaker — the fifth of the day — ensued. In the breaker, Zahraj and Smith stretched things to a 7-7 lockup before Zahraj was able to knock out the final two points to clinch the victory for the Bruins on a 7-6 (4), 5-7, 7-6 (7) decision.

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 27 singles wins to stand as the lone Trojan in that 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 is on top with 11 dual-match singles win, just ahead of Holt's tally of 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 13-5 overall in singles play this season, while he and Smith boast a 13-4 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