University Southern California Trojans
Ray Sarmiento Named Pac-10 Player of the Week
March 29, 2011 | Men's Tennis
March 29, 2011
USC freshman Ray Sarmiento picked up two big straight-set wins last week and has now snagged his first career selection as Pac-10 Player of the Week. The Trojans kept their win streak rolling in opening up their Pac-10 schedule with victories over No. 8 Stanford and No. 12 California. Sarmiento is the fourth Trojan to win the award this season, joining fellow freshman Emilio Gomez and multiple winners Steve Johnson and Jaak Poldma.
Playing at the No. 4 spot in singles action, #53 Sarmiento first topped Stanford's Denis Lin for the second time this season to help the Trojans make it back-to-back wins over the Cardinal to further avenge one of their two team losses this year. His win 6-2, 6-3 over Lin evened the score at 1-1 in the match against Stanford for a boost that helped USC to an eventual 4-2 victory.
The next day, Sarmiento then turned around and notched another road win from his No. 4 spot, beating Cal's #119 Christoffer Konigsfeldt 6-4, 6-3 on the way to a 4-1 USC win over the Bears. With the two wins, Sarmiento improves to 23-7 overall and now holds a 12-2 dual match singles record in his first year as a Trojan. USC goes to 16-2 and holds a nine-match winning streak as the Trojans now return home to host Oregon and Washington this week.
