No. 8 USC Men Take 10th Straight Trip To ITA National Team Indoors

THIS WEEK

No. 8 USC is in Seattle this week, setting up for action at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The Trojans are making their 10th straight appearance at the event, which features the 16 winners of ITA Kick-Off Weekend. USC (5-1) is the No. 8 seed in this year's draw, pulling a Round of 16 matchup against No. 8 seed Oklahoma State to open competition at 6:30 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 16) at Seattle Tennis Club. A win would push USC along to the quarterfinals against either top-seeded Wake Forest or No. 16 seed Washington at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 17) at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. Semifinals are set for Saturday (Feb. 18), with the championship match to be held at 12 p.m. on Monday (Feb. 19).

ORACLE/ITA RANKINGS UPDATES

For the 11th straight season, the USC men's tennis team kicked off the new year ranked in the nation's top-10 of the Oracle/ITA rankings, ranked No. 5 in the land to start the spring season. The latest ITA team rankings (released Feb. 7) have the Trojans still standing at No. 8. In the latest individual rankings (released Feb. 7), sophomore Brandon Holt remains the frontrunner for the Trojans, ranked No. 11 in the nation in singles. Junior Logan Smith stands at No. 119 in the nation in singles. USC has no ranked doubles teams as of this latest round of rankings.

ITA INDOOR LINEUP

The 2018 ITA National Team Indoor Championships boasts a field of 15 teams that emerged victorious from their respective ITA Kick-Off Weekend sites, along with host Washington. Wake Forest enters as the top-seeded team in the draw (and ranked No. 1 in the nation in the latest rankings released Feb. 7). Following the top seeds are No. 2 Ohio State (2), No. 3 North Carolina (3) and No. 4 Georgia (4). Seeded No. 5 is Stanford (5), followed by No. 6 seed Texas A&M (6), No. 7 UCLA (7), No. 8 USC (8), No. 9 Oklahoma State (9), No. 10 Illinois (10), No. 11 Florida (11), No. 12 Baylor (12), No. 13 Columbia (t14), No. 14 Notre Dame (22), No. 15 Duke (20) and No. 16 seeded Washington (NR). Defending champion Virginia is not in the field this year.

AT LAST YEAR'S TOURNEY

USC made its ninth straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships last year, and wound up facing off against crosstown rival UCLA in the Round of 16 out in Charlottesville, Va. No. 9 USC grabbed the opening point with a gutsy win in doubles, but the No. 7 Bruins were able to pull off a 4-3 win over the Trojans with a strong stand in singles. Relegated to consolation play from there, USC continued its success in doubles, and rang up a swift 5-0 win over Utah State the next day. In their final match at the event, the Trojans locked in on another doubles point and would hold off a tough No. 13 Baylor squad to wrap the trip with a 4-2 victory. The biggest winners on the weekend for USC were Jack Jaede, who collected three singles wins from his spot on court five, and the doubles pair of Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven, who also drummed up three wins in three matches from court two. USC finished up the event holding a 10-2 overall record.

LAST WEEK

USC defended its home turf against two teams last weekend, rattling off a run of victories to claim a 5-2 win over UC Irvine before San Francisco forced the Trojans into a tough spot. Down early to the Dons, USC had senior Henry Ji come through with the comeback clincher to lock up the Trojans' second win of the day — a 5-2 final win over USF. USC improved to 5-1 overall with the winning day at Marks Stadium. The morning match against UC Irvine began with a doubles sweep by the Trojans, with Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven skipping to a 6-2 win on court one before courts two and three finished in rapid fire. At the No. 3 spot it was Brandon Holt and Mateusz Smolicki who clinched the point with a 6-3 victory, just a blink ahead of Daniel Cukierman and Tanner Smith's 6-2 win on court two. That brought up singles play, where USC stayed in winning mode through a string of five straight-set finishes. Jack Jaede hit the finish line first in singles, speeding to a 6-3, 6-0 win over Mason Hansen on court four. That was followed by Tanner Smith's 6-3, 6-4 victory at the No. 5 spot over Vatsal Bajpai to make it a 3-0 USC advantage. Moments later, Daniel Cukierman topped Luca Marquard 6-3, 6-2 for the clinching victory, nudging USC ahead 4-0. On court one, Brandon Holt held his ground against Sebastian Heim for a 6-4, 7-5 win that made it 5-0. Tiebreakers would decide the remaining two matches, with UC Irvine's Daniel Gealer topping Jens Sweaney 6-4, 7-6 (0) on court six to register the Anteaters' first point of the match. In a 10-point breaker to decide the final match on court three, UCI's Luis Lopez fended off USC's Laurens Verboven 7-6 (5), 2-6, 1-0 (12-10) to round out the match as a 5-2 final in USC's favor. In the Trojans' second match of the day, they found their opponents at the ready to make a stand against their top-10 hosts. San Francsico drew first blood with a doubles win on court three over USC's Holt/Smolicki, but USC answered back as Cukierman/T. Smith scored a 6-3 win on court two, with a final Smith ace serving as the exclamation point on that victory. But the Dons would lock in on the first point when they were able to upend USC's Jaede/Verboven 7-5 on court one. Down 1-0 in the match, USC needed to regroup in singles. There, Jaede would continue his successful singles day in leveling the match at 1-1 with his swift 6-0, 6-2 win over Oliver Poysti on court three. Cukierman followed suit with his second win of the day with a 6-1, 6-4 victory on court one over Mert Zincirli, and USC was in the lead 2-1. Thibault Forget then made it 3-1 Trojans on a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over fellow Frenchman Paul Giraud on court five, but there were three tight matches raging on at that point, as USF had a first-set advantage on the remaining three courts. The Dons closed the gap to 3-2 with Ryan Marker's 7-6 (5), 6-2 decision over USC's Jake DeVine on court five, leaving two three-setters going strong. Senior Henry Ji had averted danger by digging in and winning a solid second-set tiebreaker to force a third on court six. He'd take no prisoners the rest of the way, firing off a 6-0 shutout in the third set to claim the clincher for the Trojans on his 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0 comeback over Lucas Marinelli. One more match was going at that point, and USC's Logan Smith matched his senior's third-set effort in closing out the day with a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0 victory over Johan Joenhagen on court two to make it a 5-2 final.

BY THE NUMBERS

As dual match play heats up, five Trojans have hit double digits in the singles win column. Sophomore Brandon Holt leads the pack with 14 singles wins. Jake DeVine has 11 wins, with a trio of Trojans gripping 10 singles wins apiece in Logan Smith, Tanner Smith and Laurens Verboven. In dual-match play, Daniel Cukierman holds an undefeated 5-0 mark in singles. In the doubles realm, the hottest hands belong to Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven, who are off to an 11-3 start thanks in part to a perfect 7-0 record together during the month of January.

SHERWOOD CHAMPS

In the opening individual action of the new year, the USC men's tennis team stretched its muscles at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup and found success on the doubles courts. In competition featuring players from UCLA, Stanford and Baylor, it was the Trojan doubles duo of Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven that emerged victorious, sweeping through to the double title today out at the Sherwood Country Club. One of two USC doubles duos in the mix for this one, the No. 3 seeded pairing of Jaede and Verboven proved a force to reckon with, surrendering no more than three games in each contest across the three-day event. The closest affair was the title match, where Jaede/Verboven took down top-seeded Genender/Kumar of Stanford with a 6-3 decision after having topped UCLA's No. 2 seeded Rapp/Smith decisively, 6-2, in the morning's semifinals.

PRESEASON PICKS

The first set of 2017-18 individual rankings came out during the fall as preseason rankings, which had five Trojans ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team. Sophomore Brandon Holt was the frontrunner for the Trojans, ranked No. 11 in the nation in singles and No. 6 in doubles with trusty sophomore teammate Riley Smith. Next in line in singles was No. 54 junior Logan Smith, followed by No. 82 junior Jack Jaede, No. 96 senior Thibault Forget and No. 120 sophomore Riley Smith.

LAST SEASON

The 2017 Trojans — under the direction of head coach Peter Smith for the 15th season — locked up the Pac-12 Tournament Championship and went on to reach the NCAA Round of 16. Along the way, Smith gathered in his 600th career win as a head coach. Freshman Brandon Holt emerged as an ITA All-American in singles after going 35-9 overall and wrapping the year ranked No. 17 in the nation. Also named the ITA Southwest Region's Rookie of the Year and Player to Watch sophomore Logan Smith (23-18 overall) ended up No. 94 in the nation, while senior Nick Crystal (16-14 overall) completed his USC career ranked No. 107. Crystal also paired with USC sophomore Laurens Verboven at No. 73 in the land with a 24-7 overall record. Holt and Riley Smith finished their first season together as Trojans ranked No. 11 in the nation - just a spot short of All-American honors. As a team, USC finished the 2016-17 season ranked No. 6 in the nation after posting a 27-6 overall record with a run to the NCAA Round of 16 in Athens, Ga.

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Players Mentioned

Nick Crystal

Daniel Cukierman

Jake DeVine

Thibault Forget

Brandon Holt

Jack Jaede

Henry Ji

Logan Smith

Riley Smith

Tanner Smith

Mateusz Smolicki

Jens Sweaney

Laurens Verboven