University Southern California Trojans
No. 1 USC Men Open Pac-12 Tournament In Semifinals
April 24, 2012 | Men's Tennis
April 24, 2012
THIS WEEK
The top-ranked USC men enter this week's first-ever Pac-12 Team Championship tournament as the No. 2 seed after taking their first loss of the year last week. Now intent on starting a new winning run after seeing a 45-match win streak snapped in their final match of the regular season, the Trojans have scored a place in the Pac-12 Semifinals. This year's team format will determine the conference's automatic berth in the coming NCAA Tournament. The Trojans will await their opponent for a 3 p.m. semifinal match on Friday (April 27) at Libbey Park in Ojai, Calif. The Pac-12 Championship match is set for the same site at 4 p.m. on Saturday (April 28). 2012 PAC-12 TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
ITA RANKING UPDATES
Despite a loss last week, the USC men remain ranked where they left off in 2011 -- at the top of the national rankings for the 13th straight cycle (latest released April 24) in a 2012 season that the Trojans hope to finish out on top of for the fourth straight year. In the latest individual rankings (released April 24), defending NCAA Singles Champion Steve Johnson weighs in at No. 2 to lead an almost complete lineup of ranked Trojans. Fellow senior Daniel Nguyen is next at No. 18, followed by ITA Southwest Regional Singles Champion Ray Sarmiento at No. 25, along with No. 53 Yannick Hanfmann and No. 60 Emilio Gomez. In doubles, USC has two top-10 pairings -- S. Johnson/Quiroz tabbed at No. 3 and Hanfmann/S. Johnson ranked No. 4 in the nation -- with its winningest pair Nguyen/Sarmiento also in the mix at No. 30.
PAC-12 PLAN
The Pac-12 will host its first-ever team men's tennis tournament to determine the automatic qualifier for the NCAA Men's Championships. Teams will be seeded based on won-lost percentages during regular-season Conference play. On Wednesday (April 25), matches between No. 5 seed Washington and No. 8 seed Arizona opens play at 11 a.m., followed by a matchup between No. 6 seed Oregon and No. 7 seed Utah. No. 4 seed California awaits the No. 5/8 winner at 11 a.m. on Thursday (April 26), with No. 3 seed Stanford awaiting the No. 6/7 winner at 2 p.m. Top-seeded UCLA and No. 2 seed USC advance directly to the semifinal round on Friday. All men's tournament matches will be played at Libbey Park, culminating with the team championship at 4 p.m. on Saturday (April 28). The Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament is a 112-year tradition, dating back to 1887. The four-day tennis extravaganza includes competition for juniors, non-Pac-12 collegiate players, and an open event. The Pac-12 has had a presence at the event since 1954.
RECENT ACTION
USC had its 45-match winning streak snapped by crosstown rival No. 5 UCLA last week. The Trojans got up 3-1 in the match after winning doubles and seeing senior standouts Steve Johnson and Daniel Nguyen clean up in singles play in their final regular-season match at Marks Stadium. The Bruins would pull out a trio of three-setters to clinch the win, however, securing the top seed in the coming Pac-12 Tournament with the 4-3 decision. A high-spirited doubles segment saw the Trojans leave the Bruins behind on courts one and two. USC lost a doubles match for the first time in conference action this year when Gomez/Hanfmann got edged out in a tiebreaker on three, but the Trojans already had the first point of the match in-hand at that juncture. On court two, Daniel Nguyen and Ray Sarmiento showed their stuff with some slick play to get up an extra break on the Bruins late in the match before Nguyen went to the service line and closed out the win with one last ace for an 8-3 decision over UCLA's Meister/Novikov. USC's #4 pairing of Steve Johnson and Roberto Quiroz kicked into gear next, turning the tide on a 4-5 deficit when Johnson/Gomez fought off break point to hold and get it to 5-5 before steamrolling the Bruins' Brigham/Puget the rest of the way to win 8-5 and secure the doubles point for the Trojans. In singles play, #2 Steve Johnson kept his supercharged singles win streak intact, ballooning it to 58 in a row with a dominating 6-2, 6-1 performance against UCLA's #78 Clay Thompson. UCLA's highest ranked player, #21 Nick Meister, was at the No. 2 position for this match, and Meister managed a 6-3, 6-4 win over USC's #23 Ray Sarmiento to notch UCLA's first point of the day, making it 2-1. USC #17 senior Daniel Nguyen would move the Trojans ahead 3-1 when he rounded out a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Dennis Novikov on court three, leaving three matches raging into deciding third sets as the match still hang very much in the balance. UCLA's #86 Marcos Giron rallied back form a first-set loss to USC's #50 Emilio Gomez on court four, as the Bruin pulled out a tough second set and rolled out ahead of Gomez in the third for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win that made it 3-2. The equalizer came later on Dennis Mkrtchian's comeback against USC's #123 Roberto Quiroz for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 decision that heaped the pressure on court five, where USC's #43 freshman Yannick Hanfmann was embroiled in a tight one with UCLA's #61 Adrien Puget. Puget had claimed the first set in a tiebreaker, but Hanfmann forced the third with a strong win in the second. The third set, however, saw the Bruins with the winning momentum, and Puget emerged victorious on a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-2 win that wrapped up the match as a 4-3 UCLA victory. The win gave the Bruins the Pac-12 Championship for 2012. USC had won the title in 2010 and 2011 after UCLA last claimed the 2009 conference crown.
STREAKING STEVIE
Senior Steve Johnson finished his junior season with a 35-match singles winning streak in claiming the 2011 NCAA Singles Championship. On March 15, Johnson reached his 50th singles win in a row -- playing at the same site (College Station, Texas) where he helped USC win the 2009 NCAA Championship as a freshman. Now at 58-in-a-row, the streak dates back over a year to Jan. 17, 2011, when Johnson fell to Stanford's Bradley Klahn in the Sherwood Collegiate Cup final. And his overall singles win streak is just a part of a similarly impressive dual-match tally. As of April 23, Johnson has won 52 straight dual-match singles matches, with the last loss dating back more than two years ago to #9 Henrique Cunha of Duke on March 17, 2010. Johnson took a fall break from collegiate tennis to play as an amateur on the pro circuit, where he won a USTA Pro Circuit Futures singles title in Claremont, Calif., and an ATP Challenger doubles title in Knoxville, Tenn. Now back on the collegiate courts, the senior five-time All-American is looking to ultimately lead the Trojans to a fourth straight national championship while he also most certainly amasses a dominating winning record of his own. He's 23-0 overall this season and 18-0 in dual-match play in 2012.
Peter Smith: 200 IN A DECADE
Currently in his 10th year as head coach at USC, Peter Smith just hit another benchmark. Already the owner of three straight NCAA Team Championships, he's seen his players win both the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championship and the 2011 NCAA Singles Championship to date. While chugging along on what grew to be a 45-match win streak, Smith picked up his 200th career victory at Troy. Smith entered the 2012 season with a 179-61 overall record as head coach at USC, and win No. 200 was locked in with a 7-0 sweep by the Trojans at Oregon on March 31.
PICKS OF THE PAC
USC has landed five different Trojans on the conference honor roll this season, including two double winners in sophomore Ray Sarmiento and freshman Yannick Hanfmann. USC's run of Pac-12 Player of the Week honorees began with Sarmiento on Jan. 30 for his third career selection after sweeping in singles and doubles at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. USC next had back-to-back freshman honorees, with Hanfmann picked on Feb. 20 after two upset wins in doubles and three straight-set singles victories on the way clinching the 2012 ITA National Team Indoor Championship with a comeback singles win in the title match. Roberto Quiroz would win next, a week later on Feb. 27, after a winning weekend sweep of San Diego State and San Diego. USC's seniors would be the next to get on the board in another back-to-back Trojan effort. On March 19, senior Steve Johnson collected his fifth career weekly award when he swept doubles and singles on a winning trip through Texas, where he also notched his 50th straight singles win. Daniel Nguyen then grabbed his third career pick as Player of the Week on March 26 for a winning day in USC's victory over No. 10 Florida, and Sarmiento's second pick of the year on April 2 now marked a three-week sweep by the Trojans. After a week off, Hanfmann brought USC back to the honor roll with his second career pick on April 16.
BY THE NUMBERS
The 20-win club has begun spilling into the 30s for the Trojan men. Sophomore Ray Sarmiento (32-10 overall, 17-5 dual) and freshman Yannick Hanfmann (32-8, 19-4) lead the pack with 32 wins apiece, while sophomore Emilio Gomez (31-7, 17-4) also is across the 30-win barrier. Senior Daniel Nguyen hit the mark last week to now site a 30-8, 19-3. Two more Trojans, meanwhile, are locked into the 20-win zone: Freshman Roberto Quiroz (25-3, 22-2) and senior Steve Johnson, who boasts an unblemished 23-0 overall record and 18-0 mark in dual matches. Freshman Eric Johnson is the next in line to hit the 20-win mark, sitting at 19-9, 8-2. USC's doubles dynamos Nguyen/Sarmiento are already in the club with a 25-4 overall doubles record (20-2 dual) to lead all the Trojan doubles duos to date. Steve Johnson and Quiroz, meanwhile, are a perfect 12-0 together in doubles play.
INDOOR CHAMPS
USC exacted some sweet revenge at the 2012 ITA National Team Indoor Championships by charging to the title in Charlottesville, Va. The Trojans took their only two losses of 2011 at the tourney last season, but made sure not to stumble at all in this year's campaign. USC won the doubles point in the first three matches, but fell in the title match vs. Ohio State before working back on top and eventually getting the championship clincher from freshman Yannick Hanfmann with his three-set comeback from court five. Hanfmann finished the tourney with a perfect run through singles play, picking up four wins to help boost the Trojans to the title run. USC opened up the action with a shutout of No. 20 Tennessee -- a rematch of the 2011 NCAA Championship match -- with the clincher coming from Roberto Quiroz on court six. In the quarterfinals against No. 10 Duke -- who had beaten the Trojans 4-3 last year at the ITA Indoors -- USC swept once again as Daniel Nguyen provided the cinching heroics from his No. 3 spot. In the semifinals, USC was up against No. 4 Georgia, and powered past the Bulldogs for a 4-1 win that Steve Johnson secured from the top singles slot. That set up the Trojans with their first championship appearance since 1991, and USC pushed through to edge out No. 3 Ohio State -- which had upset No. 2 host Virginia in the other semi -- with a 4-3 win. The victory tallied the Trojans' third title at the national indoor event, with the last coming in 1988.
SHERWOOD SWEEP
Trojans were the only ones left playing on the final day of the Sherwood Collegiate Cup on Jan. 16, with a USC sweep to the singles and doubles title matches. The Trojans come home with a solid set of hardware for their trophy cases, as Steve Johnson won the singles championship in beating teammate Daniel Nguyen, while Nguyen teamed up with Ray Sarmiento on the doubles courts to beat Johnson and Yannick Hanfmann 9-7 to claim the doubles championship. Almost a third of the singles draw was comprised of Trojans for the early-spring tournament, which culminated in today's all-Trojan title matches. Johnson stepped back to the collegiate courts for the first time since winning the 2011 NCAA Singles Championship after a stint as an amateur on the pro circuit. He now holds a clean 5-0 singles record on the year thanks to today's 6-2, 6-2 championship win over his fellow senior teammate and three-time NCAA Team Champion Nguyen. The two seniors spent a lot of time on opposite sides of the net today, in fact. In the doubles final, Nguyen was paired with his trusty teammate Sarmiento -- whom he had paired with to much success during USC's run to the 2011 national championship -- for the Sherwood title match against Johnson and USC freshman Hanfmann. Johnson/Hanfmann were the No. 2 seeded team in the doubles draw, but Nguyen/Sarmiento won the day with a late push for a 9-7 victory that captured the doubles crown.
CLUTCH NGUYEN IN FRANCE
USC senior Daniel Nguyen has locked in on the clinching match for the past two NCAA Team Championships for the three-time defending champ Trojans, and in a December trip to France he tapped into those clutch skills in helping Team USA beat host France 4-3 in the championship of the Master'U BNP Paribas. The U.S. team of the top American collegians went up against France in the final for the third straight year and fell behind 3-1 in singles play. In doubles, however, Nguyen had two matches on his plate, first teaming up with Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins -- an opponent of the Trojans' in the past two NCAA Tournaments -- for a straight-set win that boosted up the USA's chances. Nguyen then turned around and stepped up for a mixed doubles match alongside fellow Pac-12 player Jacqueline Cako of ASU. The Trojan-Sun Devil duo would overpower their French opponents to the tune of a match-clinching 6-4, 6-1 victory that sewed up a 4-3 win for Team USA to claim its second Master'U BNP Paribas championship in the past three years.
RAY ROLLS AT REGIONALS
In October, Ray Sarmiento topped off his tear through the ITA Southwest Regional Championships with yet another straight-set victory to claim the singles title for the Trojan sophomore in Malibu. Up against an upset-minded Francis Alcantara of Fresno State, Sarmiento served up a solid 6-4, 6-3 win to become the first Trojan to win a regional singles title in over a decade. The No. 2 seed in the tourney, Sarmiento never gave up more than four games in a set to anyone but No. 3 seeded Finn Tearney of host Pepperdine during the semifinals. In he title match with Alcantara, Sarmiento was similarly dominant as he picked up his sixth consecutive straight-set win of the year to bring a long-awaited regional championship to Troy. No Trojan had won a singles title at the ITA regionals since Andrew Park went back-to-back in the 1999 and 2000 regional tournaments.
SOCAL SUCCESS
USC's sophomore-freshman doubles combo of Emilio Gomez and Yannick Hanfmann extended their dominating run through the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships into a championship victory at the tourney in November in Westwood. Up against a Bruin team playing on their home courts, the two young and top-seeded Trojans served up an 8-4 win over UCLA's No. 2 seeded Brigham/Thompson to win the doubles title. The pair played in their first dual match together on March 9, and have since expanded their record together to 17-2.
LAST SEASON
USC finished 2011 on a 19-match winning streak that carried the Trojans to their third straight NCAA championship for a final 27-2 overall record. Junior Steve Johnson would win the NCAA singles championship as well, becoming the first USC player --- since the dual-match format was incorporated into the NCAA championships in 1977 -- to win a team and singles title in the same year. Johnson was named the 2011 ITA National Player of the Year, and earned All-American honors along with freshman Ray Sarmiento. Peter Smith was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year in leading the Trojans to their first undefeated conference finish since 1987. Johnson also was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, joined by teammates Jaak Poldma (first team), Sarmiento, (second team), Nguyen and Emilio Gomez (honorable mention) on the all-conference honor roll.
