Update USC vs Duke---USC Mens Tennis beat Tennessee in First round of Indoor championships

USC beat Tennessee 4-0 at the ncaa indoor championship in Charlotte Virginia on Friday and will face Duke today in the Quarter finals who beat Ucla 4-2 on Friday. This is tough ground for USC which lost early in the indoors last year to the Blue Devils 4-3 in the first round. Most east coast schools are better in indoor play than west coast squads because they play a lot indoors, whereas USC only has one or 2 players that have indoor experience. Yannick Hanfmann who plays at #5 singles (who is from Germany) is the only player to have lots of indoor experience that will compete during the championships, the other being Ben Lankenau who doesn’t figure in the competition.

Lead by Daniel Nguyen and Ray Sarmiento in doubles a 8-2 winner over Tennessee’s #2 doubles team the Trojan took the first point of the match. Then came the singles and again it was Nguyen leading the way with a 6-1, 6-0 shellacking at the #3 position over Vol Hunter Reese, next came Hanfmann with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Edward Jones. Finally Freshman Roberto Quiroz finished off the Vols at #6 singles 6-4, 6-1, the Trojans are now 8-0 on the season and are looking for more.

This quote from Coach Peter Smith sums up the Trojan mind set at the indoors: "We had a tough time getting going early in doubles, being indoors, but we started to return well," USC head coach Peter Smith said. "In singles we did a good job of not letting them get into the match. We have memories against Tennessee, so we knew they were going to be tough. Indoor matches are tough because of the quickness of the courts, but we are adjusting to it. We are getting a chance to work on some things that we don't usually work on."

Today Duke lost to USC 4-0, yes another shutout with USC getting payback for the loss to the Blue Devils last year. They will face Georgia in the Final Four teams left in the tournament, USC being the #1 seed, Virginia the #2 seed taking on Ohio State the #3 seed and finally the Bulldogs at #4 seed. I guess the rankings are pretty much to order no upsets left here, I say that because any top 4 team is worthy of winning a competition as this one. USC has the most Ranked players with all six, OSU has five as does Georgia and Virginia only three. I really think it will be OSU vs. USC in the final, they have the best doubles teams and the most experienced players on each roster.

2012 ITA NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS (Charlottesville, Va.)

#1 USC 4, #20 Tennessee 0

DOUBLES

(1) #28 Hanfmann/S. Johnson (USC) vs. #41 Libietis/Reese (TENN) -- 6-5 susp.

(2) Nguyen/Sarmiento (USC) vs. Fickey/Jones (TENN) -- 8-2

(3) Gomez/Quiroz (USC) vs. Chaplin/Nagovnak (TENN) -- 8-4

USC wins doubles point.

Order of finish: 2, 3

SINGLES

(1) #11 Steve Johnson (USC) vs. #81 Mikelis Libietis (TENN) -- 6-2, 5-3 susp.

(2) #18 Ray Sarmiento (USC) vs. Brandon Fickey (TENN) -- 6-4, 5-3 susp.

(3) #14 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Hunter Reese (TENN) -- 6-1, 6-0

(4) #47 Emilio Gomez (USC) vs. Jarryd Chaplin (TENN) -- 6-4, 2-5 susp.

(5) #36 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) def. Edward Jones (TENN) -- 6-1, 6-0

(6) #86 Roberto Quiroz (USC) def. Peter Nagovnak (TENN) -- 6-4, 6-1*

Order of finish: 3, 5, 6

#1 USC

4

#10 DUKE

0

No. 1 Singles 1 2 3 #11 Steve Johnson 6 3 - #2 Henrique Cunha ⇐ dnf 4 3 -		No. 1 Doubles 1 #28 S.Johnson/Hanfmann 8 #13 Cunha/Saba 3
No. 2 Singles 1 2 3 #18 Ray Sarmiento ⇐ 6 3 1 #17 Chris Mengel dnf 1 6 3		No. 2 Doubles 1 Nguyen/Sarmiento dnf 6 Mengel/Holland 6
No. 3 Singles 1 2 3 #14 Daniel Nguyen 6 6 - Torsten Wietoska 4 2 -		No. 3 Doubles 1 Gomez/Quiroz 8 Wietoska/Hemmeler 5
No. 4 Singles 1 2 3 #47 Emilio Gomez 6 6 - Fred Saba 3 1 -
No. 5 Singles 1 2 3 #36 Yannick Hanfmann 6 6 - Raphael Hemmeler 0 2 -		⇐ Currently Serving Order of Finish Doubles: 1, 3 Singles: 5, 4, 3
No. 6 Singles 1 2 3 #86 Roberto Quiroz 7(7) 3 - Jason Tahir ⇐ dnf 6(4) 4 -