USC Men's Tennis Bounces Back, Tops Stanford 6-1
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Eric Johnson and the Trojans rebounded from their first loss of the season (Twitter/USCMensTennis)
The Trojans started off a little slow in doubles play. Stanford’s Morrissey/Stineman duo collected the first win of the day against No. 2 duo Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz 6-3. Quickly afterwards, Paige/Wilczynski of Stanford defeated Nick Crystal and Jonny Wang 7-5, giving Stanford a 1-0 lead.
Head coach Peter Smith wasn’t too satisfied with the team’s double’s play after the game. “I didn’t think we were matching their energy at all in doubles, we weren’t too pleased about that”, he said. “They’re seniors, but they gotta be kicked in the butt just as hard as anyone else.”
Despite the first loss, the Trojans came out strong and hungry in singles play. Senior Eric Johnson made easy work of his opponent, David Wilczynski, on court three with a 6-3, 6-1 win to tie it at 1-1. On court six, No. 45 Nick Crystal also won in two straight sets, going 6-1, 6-3 against David Hsu.
No. 6 Yannick Hanfmann played a thrilling match against Stanford’s No. 26 freshman Tom Fawcett on court one. The match was extremely competitive throughout, but Hanfmann was able to pull away with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
Smith talked of Hanfmann's impressive singles performance after the game. "I thought Yannick really made a big step forward in singles today," Smith said. "He’s been struggling for about a month and I could see as the singles match went on, he found his range on his ground strokes. He was putting some weight and muscle behind it.”
Hanfmann’s win increased the Trojan’s lead to 3-1, setting up No. 20 senior Roberto Quiroz in position to clinch for the team.
Quiroz also played an intense match against Stanford’s John Morrisey on court two, and he too was able to win his match 6-4, 6-4, securing a USC win.
The coaches decided to let No. 72 Max de Vroome and No. 31 Jonny Wang finish out their matches. On court five, de Vroome lost the first set to Stanford’s Nolan Paige, but was able to win the last two sets 6-1, 6-1. Wang played Maciek Romanowicz on court four and came back from a first set loss to win the second and third set, the third set being opted to play as a tiebreak to 10, for a 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6) win.
The Trojans finished off the day with a decisive 6-1 win, winning every one of their singles match ups. The team is looking to take the momentum from today’s win into Saturday’s match-up with No. 51 Tulsa at 9:30 a.m.
Reach Staff Writer Carly Fasciglione here.
