The most successful season in University of San Diego men’s tennis history came to a harsh ending Sunday night, when the No. 6 Toreros (25-4) were upset 4-2 by No. 28 USC in the second-round of the NCAA tournament at USD’s Hogan Tennis Center.
The Trojans (19-8) took the win not long after play resumed following a weather delay of just under 4 1/2 hours.
The delay began a little after 3 p.m. with USD leading 2-1 but trailing in the third set of three singles matches which all went USC’s way.
Just after play resumed at 7:30 p.m. and in a span of just under 30 minutes, the Trojans completed singles wins from Nathan Trouve (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) over Savriyan Danilov, Oscar Weightman (6-4, 1-6, 6-3) over Sian Klaasan and finally, Matteo Morazzi (5-7, 6-4, 6-3) over Blake Kasday.
In total and in succession, USC’s Trouve, Weightman and Morazzi combined to win six of the final eight games in three matches after resumption of play.
Earlier, the Toreros earned a pair of doubles victories by the score of 7-5 with OIiver Tarvet and Klaasen beating Tristan Bradley and Peter Makk and Adrien Berrut and Danilov beating Volodymyr Iakubenko and Weightman.
Shortly before rain halted play, USD took that 2-1 lead with a singles win by Neo Niedner over Volodymyr Iakubenko 6-3, 6-4.
USC’s other singles victory came before the weather delay with Karl Lee beating Berrut 7-6, 6-4.
The Toreros, who were on an 12 match winning streak, advanced to Sunday’s matchup against USC with a 4-2 win over UC Irvine on Saturday in front of a USD-record crowd of 656, a contest wrapped up by No. 1 singles Tarvet’s 7-5, 6-1 win over No. 65 Noah Zamora in the day’s final match.
Tarvet – the No. 3 ranked player in the nation, never had a chance to complete his match against USC’s Makk as Morazzi’s win over Kasday gave the Trojans the needed four points with Tarvet and Makk tied 1-1 in the third set of their match.
“It just didn’t go our way,” USD coach Ryan Keckley said. “But that’s college tennis. We’ve had a lot go our way this year and been in positions for success. And we faced a lot of adversity. It’s funny, actually, that we had such a long rain delay with as much unusual activity that we’ve had in our matches over the course of the season. I actually thought it was going to go our way, but hats off to USC.”
USC advances to next week’s Super Regionals at rival UCLA. The 16th-ranked Bruins upset No.11 Cal in the second round.
The Toreros ended a season which saw the program earn the most wins in program history, garner a slew of individual honors, achieve its highest ever national ranking, win the WCC regular season and conference tournament titles and host an NCAA Tournament regional for the first time.
“Heck of a season from the Toreros,” Keckley said. “To end 25-4 — it doesn’t feel good at this point, but upon some reflection, there will be a lot of positive takeaways from what we accomplished and what we did. I’d like to see us get to that round of 16 and that competition, but it doesn’t happen overnight. We’ll keep building. We’ll keep working hard and keep asking questions about how to get better. We’ll be more prepared at this time next year and we’ll be back.”
