Last season USC won all three meetings against UCLA, but so far this season it’s Bruins 1 and Trojans 0. UCLA claimed this year’s first edition of the Battle for LA by taking out #12 USC 5-2.

UCLA took the doubles point for the 10th time in 12 tries but it didn’t do it with a win at #1. USC’s Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven surprised the ITA #3 team of Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki 6-4. Crystal/Verboven jumped out to a 4-1 lead before McDonald/Redlick won three straight to even it at 4-4. Crystal/Verboven held for 5-4 and then broke to win it 6-4.

UCLA’s #2 team of Karue Sell and Joseph Di Giulio were the first off the court with a 6-2 win over Max de Vroome and Jack Jaede. Sell/Di Giulio broke to go up 4-2 then held and broke again to win it 6-2.

The doubles point was decided at #3 between UCLA’s Max Cressy/Gage Brymer and USC’s Rob Bellamy/Jake DeVine. Cressy and Brymer broke USC to start the match and would hold to the lead the rest of the way to win it 6-4.

UCLA kept the momentum going in singles by taking opening sets at 1, 3, 4, and 6 while USC claimed the opening set at 2 and 5.

UCLA’s Joseph Di Giulio raced off the court in 55 minutes with a 6-1, 6-1 rout over Jack Jaede at #6. Di Giulio broke Jaede to start the match and held for 2-0. Jaede got on the board with a hold then Joey D proceeded to reel off five straight games to close out the first set 6-1 and go up 1-0 in the second. Jaede held serve to even it at 1-1 then Joey reeled off another five-bagger to hand Jaede a double-breadstick defeat. Nice backhand winner by Joey to win it:

Roughly 10 minutes later Mackenzie McDonald would make it 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Max de Vroome at #1. McDonald broke de Vroome to start the match and held for 2-0. After an exchange of holds, McDonald would break again to go up 4-1 and would then consolidate the break for 5-1. De Vroome held for 2-5 and then Mackie served out the set to take it 6-2. The second set stayed on serve until Mackie broke to go up 3-2 and then held for 4-2. Mackie would serve it out from 5-4 to take it 6-4.

USC’s Thibault Forget would put the Trojans on the board with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Logan Staggs at #5. Forget won 10 of the first 11 games to jump out to a 6-1, 4-0 lead but Staggs would come back to take the next four to even the second set at 4-4. Forget finally righted the ship with a pair of holds and then he’d break Staggs to close it out in 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Less than a minute later USC’s Nick Crystal would finish off Martin Redlicki 7-6(5), 6-2 at #2. The first set stayed on serve up until the tiebreak with Crystal the tiebreak 7-5. The second set was even at 2-2 then Crystal took the last four games to close it out 6-2.

Both of the remaining matches were headed to a third set with USC needing both of them if it wanted to pull off the comeback.

Over at #4, UCLA senior Karue Sell broke USC freshman Jake DeVine to start the match but DeVine would break back to even it at 3-3. Sell would break again to go up 5-4 and then serve out the opening set to take it 6-4. DeVine took a break lead in the second when he went up 3-1 but Sell broke back and held for 3-3. After an exchange of holds DeVine broke Sell to take the set 6-4. DeVine held to start the third set but then Sell took the next six to clinch the team win with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win in 1 hour and 49 minutes.

UCLA’s Gage Brymer would defeat USC’s Logan Smith in the final match of the night 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(6) at #3. Smith started off the match by holding and then going up a break but Brymer broke back and held for 2-2. If stayed on serve until Brymer broke to up 5-4 then he served out the set to take 6-4.  Smith rolled through the second set by breaking Brymer to go up 3-1 and then he’d break him again to take the set 6-2. Brymer broke Smith to start the third but Smith broke back for 1-1. Brymer broke again to go up 3-2 but was broke in the next game. Brymer broke yet again to go up 6-5 but Smith broke back to send it a tiebreak. Smith led 4-2 at the changeover by Brymer took five of the next six point to finish off the 5-2 with for U-C-L-A.

Nice job by UCLA and USC to get those match point video clips.

Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,1,5,2,4,3)

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#31 San Diego was able to play the underdog card against #29 Rice, largely due to a clerical error, and used the extra motivation to role to a 4-0 win. San Diego won at #1 and #3 doubles by 6-1 scores and then the Toreros picked up straight set wins in singles from Uros Petronijevic, Jordan Angus, and Alexandros Araouzos at #1, #2, and #6. Araouzos clinched the win and thus got USD’s gameball for the match (nice post-match feature that USD has been doing)