USC Blanks Cal & Plenty Of WACtion in Seattle

A day after USC lost a tough one at Stanford it rebounded and posted a 4-0 shutout over No. 12 Cal. USC’s No. 3 team of Rob Bellamy and Jack Jaede broke for a 4-3 lead and they’d close it out a few games later for a 6-4 win. Cal picked up a 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles after Andre Goransson and Billy Griffith came back from a break down to win the final three games. The decider was at No. 1 between a pair of top 10 doubles teams. After 10 consecutive holds, USC’s Brandon Holt and Riley Smith broke Cal’s Florian Lakat and Filip Bergevi to go up 6-5 and then they’d serve it out to win it 7-5.

Cal came back strong in singles and took four opening sets but USC’s Logan Smith and Thibault Forget each closed out their matches in straight sets to make it 3-0. Cal was a game away from wins at No. 1, No. 2, and No. 6 but USC’s Jack Jaede got the clincher at No. 4 after coming back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 over Filip Bergevi. Each of the remaining matches were abandoned so the final stood at 4-0. 

#5 USC, #12 California 0
April 8, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. (Hellman Tennis Complex)
Doubles results
1. No. 11 Brandon Holt/Riley Smith (USC) def. No. 2 Florian Lakat/Filip Bergevi (Cal), 7-5*
2. No. 65 Andre Goransson/Billy Griffith (Cal) def. Nick Crystal/Laurens Verboven (USC), 6-4
3. Rob Bellamy/Jack Jaede (USC) def. Bjorn Hoffmann/J.T. Nishimura (Cal), 6-4
Singles results
1. No. 14 Florian Lakat (Cal) vs. No. 19 Brandon Holt (USC), 7-6(5), 5-4 Unfinished
2. No. 45 Andre Goransson (Cal) vs. No. 109 Nick Crystal (USC), 7-5, 6-6 (6-0) Unfinished
3. No. 65 Logan Smith (USC) def. No. 85 Billy Griffith (Cal), 6-2, 7-5
4. Jack Jaede (USC) def. Filip Bergevi (Cal), 3-6, 6-4, 6-0^
5. Thibault Forget (USC) def. Bjorn Hoffmann (Cal), 6-3, 6-3
6. J.T. Nishimura (Cal) vs. Riley Smith (USC), 7-6(4), 5-4 Unfinished
Match Notes
USC (20-4, 3-1 Pac-12)
California (15-6, 2-1 Pac-12)
Order of Finish: Singles (5,3,4^); Doubles (3,2,1)

Post-Match Quotes from Cal’s recap
“USC played a solid match today and deserved to win,” Cal head coach Peter Wright said. “We’re getting close to playing at our postseason level, but we clearly have some work to do. The good news is we’re getting healthy. Our focus is to get sharper with each match we play, and I think we have a long enough runway to be at our best in May.”

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For the last few days I’ve been in Seattle attending the WAC Cluster and after a pair of shutouts on Friday the action really picked up on Saturday. The first match of the day was a rematch from last year’s conference tournament final with New Mexico State taking on UMKC. UMKC grabbed the doubles point to take the early lead but New Mexico State came back in singles and picked up straight set wins from Christofer Goncalves, Stijn de Haan, and Sergi Espias at 1, 3, and 4. UMKC came back to tie it up after getting a three-set win from Uldis Gaismins at No. 2 and a straight set win from Mike Psarros at No. 5.

The last match to go on court, with only four courts available, would be the decider. UMKC’s Daniel Izadifar opened up a single-break 3-0 lead to start the match but NMSU’s Mauri Benitez held and broke for 3-2. It stayed on serve until Benitez broke on the no-ad point for 6-5 and then he served out the set to take it 7-5. In the second set, Benitez broke for 3-2 but Izadifar would break back and hold for 4-3. The set ended up going to a tiebreak and after falling behind 3-1, NMSU’s Benitez would take five straight to go up 6-3. Benitez dropped both points on his serve to make it 6-5 but then he won it on the next point when Izadifar netted a forehand. 

New Mexico State has now defeated UMKC by the same 4-3 score in the last four matches.