The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
USC
No. 10 Men's Tennis falls to No. 11 USC, 5-2
03.14.2018 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns pick up singles wins from Christian Sigsgaard and Adrian Ortiz.
LOS ANGELES – No. 10 Texas (11-3) collected singles wins from sophomore Christian Sigsgaard and junior Adrian Ortiz, but No. 11 USC (11-4) won the doubles point and four singles matches in a 5-2 victory over the Longhorns Wednesday at USC's Marks Tennis Stadium.
In doubles, Texas sophomore Yuya Ito and junior Colin Markes held a 5-4 lead over the Trojans at the third position, but USC closed out wins at the second and first slots to win the doubles point and assume a 1-0 lead.
USC posted consecutive singles wins at the third, fourth and fifth positions to clinch the team win. Laurens Verboven defeated UT junior Harrison Scott by a 7-6 (4), 6-1 count at third singles, and Jack Jaede posted a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Texas junior Leonardo Telles at fourth singles. The Trojans' Riley Smith provided the clincher at fifth singles with his 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over UT junior Rodrigo Banzer.
Sigsgaard put the Horns on the board at second singles. The sophomore from Denmark split his first two sets with USC's Daniel Cukierman at second singles and scored the win when Cukierman retired after facing a 5-0 third-set deficit.
Ortiz held on for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over the Trojans' Jake DeVine at sixth singles to give the Horns their second and final point. USC added a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win from its 12th-ranked Brandon Holt over UT's 46th-ranked sophomore Yuya Ito at No. 1 singles.
Texas takes some time off before resuming dual-match play on Sunday, March 25 when UT hosts Tulsa at Texas Tennis Center.
No. 11 USC 5, No. 10 Texas 2
DOUBLES – Order of Finish: 2, 1
(1) No. 26 Brandon Holt/Riley Smith (USC) def. No. 3 Rodrigo Banzer/Leonardo Telles (UT) - 6-4
(2) No. 52 Jack Jaede/Laurens Verboven (USC) def. Adrian Ortiz/Christian Sigsgaard (UT) - 6-1
(3) Mateusz Smolicki/Tanner Smith (USC) vs. Yuya Ito/Colin Markes (UT) - 4-5 susp.
SINGLES – Order of Finish: 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 1
(1) No. 12 Brandon Holt (USC) def. #46 Yuya Ito (UT) - 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
(2) Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. #64 Daniel Cukierman (USC) - 6-3, 5-7, 5-0 ret.
(3) Laurens Verboven (USC) def. #60 Harrison Scott (UT) - 7-6 (4), 6-1
(4) Jack Jaede (USC) def. #70 Leonardo Telles (UT) - 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
(5) Riley Smith (USC) def. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) - 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
(6) Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Jake DeVine (USC) - 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
This was a tough match today, and I give USC credit for the win. I didn't feel like we were at our best today. I can't put my finger on what went wrong, but we had some chances to turn some matches around. I didn't think we were aggressive. I thought they were more aggressive than we were in some of the key moments, and that was the difference in the match. We played five three-set matches, and we just didn't do the things we needed to do to come out on top. We'll take a couple of days off and get ready for Tulsa later this month. We have a lot of work to do over these next 10 days to get ready for that match and conference and the battles we'll need to be ready to face in the next month or month and a half. I'm a little disappointed today. I thought we had been playing really well, but today we didn't quite have it. USC was good today, so congratulations to them.
Players Mentioned
