No. 15 USC Men’s Tennis Snags 6-1 Win Over No. 17 Sun Devils

TEMPE, ARIZ. — The No. 15 USC men's tennis team pulled off a road split with a 6-1 bounceback win at No. 17 Arizona State today. The Trojans snagged the doubles point and pushed on to snare five singles wins with the clincher coming from Riley Smith on court two. USC improves to 14-5 overall and to 2-1 in Pac-12 play with today's victory.

After dropping the doubles point in Tucson, USC dug in and made no mistakes in today's doubles action in Tempe. The Trojans tacked up solid wins on courts one and two to secure the opening point. At the top spot, USC's #2 tandem of Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith drummed up a 6-1 win, while Stefan Dostanic and Bradley Frye kept their undefeated run together going strong with a 6-3 win at the No. 2 spot.

In singles, #122 Lodewijk Weststrate sprinted to a decisive first-set win on court five. Jake Sands made a similar power move to claim a quick first set at the No. 6 spot. Both Trojans stayed on the gas pedal to tack up two more points for USC, with Weststrate scooping up a 6-1, 6-2 win over George Stoupe and Sands storming to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Christian Lerby. With USC up 3-0, the Sun Devils got on the board when Tim Ruehl upended USC's #55 Stefan Dostanic 7-6, 6-4 on court three. That would be all the Trojans would surrender, though. At the No. 2 spot, #14 Riley Smith pulled off tiebreak wins in both sets as he took out ASU's Makey Rakotomalala 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) to claim the clincher for USC, getting his Trojans up 4-1 as the match played on. At the top slot, #26 Daniel Cukierman pulled off a similar feat in winning breakers in both his sets to beat #51 Nathan Ponwith 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5). Coming through with the final win of the day for USC was Bradley Frye, who continued the Trojans' tiebreak rally with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6) victory over Andrea Bolla to round out the 6-1 USC road win.

The Trojans return home for more Pac-12 matchups next week, hosting Washington at 2 p.m. on Friday (April 2) and Oregon at 1 p.m. on Saturday (April 3) at Marks Stadium.

#15 USC 6, #17 Arizona State 1
March 28, 2021 | Tempe, Ariz.
DOUBLES
(1) #2 Cukierman/R. Smith (USC) def. #42 Ponwith/Stoupe (ASU) - 6-1
(2) Dostanic/Frye (USC) def. Bolla/Lerby (ASU) - 6-3
(3) Sands/Weststrate (USC) vs. Hoffmann/Ruehl (ASU) 4-3 susp.
Order of finish: 1, 2
USC wins doubles point.
SINGLES
(1) #26 Daniel Cukierman (USC) def. #51 Nathan Ponwith (ASU) - 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5)
(2) #14 Riley Smith (USC) def. Makey Rakotomalala (ASU) - 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3)*
(3) Tim Ruehl (ASU) def. #55 Stefan Dostanic (USC) - 7-6, 6-4
(4) Bradley Frye (USC) def. Andrea Bolla (ASU) - 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6)
(5) #122 Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) def. George Stoupe (ASU) - 6-1, 6-2 
(6) Jake Sands (USC) def. Christian Lerby (ASU) - 6-2, 6-4
Order of finish: 5, 6, 3, 2*, 1, 4