No. 7 USC men’s tennis is serving up quite the season with an undefeated 4-0 record. The Trojans defended their home turf yet again on Saturday, defeating UNLV 5-2.
Center court doubles duo junior Peter Makk & senior Lodewijk Weststrate sent wavelengths through the stadium as they brought their team the first win of the day.
Makk’s two aces in the last game helped sweep the match from UNLV’s feet in under 30 minutes, giving freshman Volodymyr Iakubenko and graduate student Samuel Rubell the momentum to pull off a close 7-5 win that clinched the doubles point for the Trojans.
USC’s momentum didn’t stop there. No. 94-ranked junior Karl Lee quickly secured another point with his court five singles win, 6-2, 6-1.
Despite a tough week at practice, Lee worked out the kinks and was able to win a seemingly effortless match in straight sets.
“It was just one of those weeks where everything is slow,” Lee said. “You’re trying your hardest, but the pieces of the puzzle aren’t connecting.”
Following Lee, No. 73 Weststrate earned his second win of the day (6-2, 6-1), before Iakubenko finished off UNLV’s sixth-year Aaron Bailey 6-4, 6-1.
“We just have to assert ourselves when we’re winning and putting the other guys down when we have our leads,” head coach Brett Masi said. “Credit to Karl, Volodymyr and Lodewijk; even when they did get those first sets, the second sets were even better.”
Masi recognizes the importance of maintaining a lead to propel the match forward. For the players unable to come out on top, he hopes rewatching film will reveal areas of improvement for creating leads against tough opponents.
No. 39 Makk and senior Niroop Vallabhaneni were the last to finish, each powering through a third-set tiebreaker. However, neither could complete a comeback after dropping their respective opening sets. .
“Credit to UNLV, they kept fighting and bounced back and put themselves in position and made it tough on us, and we just weren’t there in the end,” Masi said. “They built up a bit of confidence, and I’d say we weren’t able to raise our level as well as they did.”
The entire lineup was affected without USC’s top singles player, No. 25 Stefan Dostanic, defending center court This gave his teammates an opportunity to prove themselves and for Vallabhaneni to make his season debut.
Confidence appears to be the name of the game for the Trojans, but with tough matchups against conference teams looming ahead, it’s important to take it one match at a time.
“Last weekend’s match definitely brought the team closer together,” Lee said. “We’re very proud of what we achieved and how we just went for it as a unit. … It’s day by day, as long as we’re all pushing together as a team and striving to win, that should be enough.”
Just as last weekend’s ITA Kickoff Weekend was preparation for UNLV, Saturday’s victory was simply more experience to aid in upcoming matchups.
“We’re doing things this week to put ourselves in a better position for next week,” Masi said. “We’ve got a tough two-week stretch here on the road where we’re going to be at Oklahoma State and Baylor, then National Indoors straight from there. We’ve got to be road warriors here for about ten days, so if we’re not going to be playing a lot of tennis … we have to make sure our bodies are feeling right.”
The Trojans’ lengthy road trip begins at Oklahoma State at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by a trip to Baylor at 3 p.m. on February 12.