USC men’s tennis came into the weekend ranked No. 15 in the country and picked up two wins against ranked opponents. They took on No. 13 Stanford on Friday and came out on top in a 4-3 nail-biter. USC followed that up with another close 4-2 win over No. 22 Cal on Saturday.
Friday’s match against Stanford began with freshman Peter Makk and sophomore Lodewijk Weststrate starting things off with a 6-4 win on court two. Over on court three, juniors Ryder Jackson Samuel Rubell lost a tough one 7-6 which meant the doubles point would be decided on court one.
Junior Stefan Dostanic and senior Bradley Frye were also in a tight match that went to a tiebreak, but the Trojans managed to pull out the win and take the doubles point.
The singles matches were just as close as Stanford evened the duel with a 6-1, 6-4 win on court six.
Soon after, however, Dostanic won handily, 6-3, 6-4, on court one over the No. 2 ranked singles player in the country, sophomore Arthur Fery.
The Cardinal once again responded quickly as Makk fell to freshman Max Basing 7-6, 6-2 on court three.
The teams continued to trade points as Weststrate won 7-5, 6-4 on court five but Frye lost in three sets on court two.
It all came down to court four with USC freshman Ryan Colby battling against Stanford senior Alexandre Rotsaert. Colby won the first set in a tiebreaker and found himself in another tiebreaker for set two. Rotsaert had some great points, but Colby remained solid and won the second set along with the duel for USC.
The Trojans carried their momentum (and flair for the dramatic) from Friday into Saturday. USC again took the doubles point with wins on courts one and three. Dostanic and Frye were down an early break but turned it on to win 6-3. On court three, Jackson and Rubell broke early and never looked back, winning 6-3.
In the early stages of the singles matches, all six USC players were rolling. On court one, Dostanic continued his hot streak and won easily in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
On court three Makk also looked strong all match long. He gave USC a 3-0 lead with a 7-5, 6-2 win.
On court five, Weststrate found himself up two breaks in the first set. He was serving for the set at 5-2 but couldn’t convert and had another opportunity at 5-4. Once again, he came up short. Weststrate ended up dropping the first set in a tiebreak and looked deflated in the second set, losing 6-3.
“We’ve been having a hard time closing out matches,” said head coach Brett Masi.
That problem wasn’t exclusive to Weststrate on Saturday. Ryan Colby had opportunities to close but fell just short. Colby lost in straight sets, but both sets went to a tiebreaker.
Over on courts two and six, Frye and Graduate Paul Barretto both coasted to first set wins but dropped the second set.
With the duel score at 3-2 in favor of USC and the tide shifting toward the Golden Bears, the outlook didn’t look great for the Trojans.
Frye was up a break in the third set and serving for the match. He had three match points but couldn’t convert on any of them and the match ended up going to a tiebreaker.
This time Cal had four match points, but Frye fought all of them off in thrilling fashion. He eventually closed out the match and duel, giving USC a 4-2 win over Cal.
It’s a good thing for USC that Frye pulled out the win because Baretto was down 3-5 in the third set when play was suspended.
“Even though we should’ve won and were losing we stayed out there and gave ourselves a chance,” Masi said.
The Trojans will look to continue their win streak at Oregon on Friday.