USC swept all three meetings last season with the Trojans winning 4-1 at home, 4-2 in Westwood, and 4-1 at the Pac 12 Tournament in Ojai though Max de Vroome and Nick Crystal are the only 2 returning starters from those USC teams. This will be USC’s second dual-match this season at the LA Tennis Center after it defeated #30 Florida 4-3 during the Pac-12/SEC Challenge.
#12 USC (7-2) at #6 UCLA (9-2) – 5:30pm est/2:30pm pst – Live Scoring
Doubles record: UCLA 9-2, USC 5-4
UCLA home record: 6-0 (Georgia, San Diego, Georgia Tech, UC Irvine, SMU, San Francisco)
USC road record: 1-0 (Stanford)
Projected Doubles Lineups
1. #3 Mackenzie McDonald/Martin Redlicki (UCLA) vs. Nick Crystal/Laurens Verboven (USC)
2. Joseph Di Giulio/Karue Sell (UCLA) vs. Max de Vroome/Jack Jaede (USC)
3. Gage Brymer/Max Cressy (UCLA) vs. Rob Bellamy/Jake Devine (USC)
I see the doubles point being decided at #2 because I like UCLA at #1 and USC at #3. I’ll take Jaede and de Vroome over Sell and Joey D to give USC the doubles point.
Projected Singles Lineups (w UTR as of 3/1)
1. #19 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA 14.91) vs. #65 Max de Vroome (USC 14.12)
2. #36 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 13.87) vs. #67 Nick Crystal (USC 13.97)
3. #46 Gage Brymer (UCLA 14.11) vs. #56 Logan Smith (USC 13.64)
4. #94 Karue Sell (UCLA 14.35) vs. #92 Jake DeVine (USC 13.62)
5. Logan Staggs (UCLA 13.35) vs. Thibault Forget (USC 13.51)
6. Joseph Di Giulio (UCLA 13.48) vs. Jack Jaede (USC 13.48)
Dual-Match Singles Record:
1. McDonald (6-1) vs. de Vroome (3-4)
2. Redlicki (7-2) vs. Crystal (4-4)
3. Brymer (6-5) vs. Smith (7-2)
4. Sell (10-0) vs. DeVine (6-1)
5. Staggs (5-4) vs. Forget (6-0)
6. Di Giulio (5-3) vs. Jaede (4-2)
Court-By-Court Breakdown:
1. McDonald (Jr) is 8-2 against USC over the last three years in both dual-match and individual play and he won the one H2H over de Vroome (Sr) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 back in October 2014 at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional. Mackie has won his last four while de Vroome has lost two of his last three though he’s coming off a huge win last weekend over Stanford’s Tom Fawcett. De Vroome is 10-8 in his college career against UCLA players and he’s won his last seven. It would take a huge effort from Max to get the win here but I can’t see Mackie losing at home. Prediction: McDonald (UCLA) in 2
2. Redlicki (Soph) is 6-2 against USC players and Crystal (Jr) is 4-4 against UCLA while Redlicki won the one H2H against Crystal 7-6, 6-7, 6-1 back in October in the semis of the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional. Redlicki has won two straight and four of his last five including a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Stanford’s David Wilczynski last Saturday while Crystal has lost three of his last four though he whipped Stanford’s David Wilczynski 6-3, 6-1 last Friday. This is a court that UCLA is going to be counting on and I think Redlicki pulls it out. Prediction: Redlicki (UCLA) in 3
3. Brymer (Jr) is 6-3 in his career against USC players while Smith is 3-2 against UCLA. Brymer has split his last four matches but is coming off a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Stanford’s Nolan Paige. Smith has also split his last four matches (though he won the five prior) and is coming off a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Paige. I think this is a court that Peter Smith is banking on if the Trojans are going to win. I’m going to take the freshman here with in a little bit of an upset. Prediction: Smith (USC) in 2
4. Sell (Sr) is 8-9 in his career against USC while DeVine (Fr) is 1-1. Sell has only dropped two sets in 11 dual-matches (10-0 record) and is coming off a 6-2, 6-2 rolling of Stanford’s Sameer Kumar while DeVine is 6-1 and is coming off a 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 win over Kumar. The experienced senior from Brazil will be a little too much from the freshman from California. Prediction: Sell (UCLA) in 2
5. Staggs (Soph) is 3-1 this season against USC while Forget (Soph) is 2-3 against UCLA though Forget beat Staggs 6-4, 6-0 in the round of 16 at the Sherwood Cup. Staggs is coming off a match clinching straight set win over Stanford’s Maciek Romanowicz while Forget is undefeated in dual-match play and is coming off a 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 win over Stanford’s Brandon Sutter. I think the confidence of Staggs win over Romanowicz will carry over to the his match and he’ll get past Forget. Prediction: Staggs (UCLA) in 3
6. Di Giulio (Jr) is just 3-10 against USC while Jaede (Fr) is 1-2 against UCLA. This will be the first meeting between these two with both coming off losses. Di Giulio lost to Stanford’s Michael Genender 6-1, 6-4 last Saturday while Jaede lost to Stanford’s Maciek Romanowicz 7-6 in the third. I’m going to take the hotter hand in this one and go with the USC freshman from Australia. Prediction: Jaede (USC) in 2.
Match Prediction: UCLA 4-3
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