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Trojans Win Doubles, But Fall To No. 4 Cal, 5-2
April 18, 2003
LOS ANGELES - Despite capturing the doubles point to start the afternoon, the No. 21 USC men's tennis team fell to fourth-ranked California, 5-2, on Friday afternoon at Marks Tennis Stadium. With the loss, the Trojans drop to 13-10 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-10, while the Golden Bears improve to 18-3, 4-1 in conference play. USC, playing without Ruben Torres in the lineup (injury), got off to a good start by winning two-of-three doubles matches. The Trojans benefited from the outstanding play of Johan Berg and Daniel Langre at No. 2, who started off the match with an 8-3 win over Conor Niland and Balazs Veress. USC then lost at the No. 3 position, 8-4, but clinched the doubles point as Prakash Amritraj and Jeff Kazarian posted a convincing 8-6 victory over John Paul Fruttero and Patrick Briaud at center court. The Trojans found little success in singles, falling in straight sets at courts five, four, two and six, respectively, to give Cal the necessary four points for the victory. In one of two remaining matches, Berg put forth a strong comeback effort over Or Dekel at No. 2, but fell 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in a third-set tiebreaker. Amritraj provided the Trojans' only singles highlight as he defeated Cal's Fruttero 7-5, 7-5 at center court to complete the match. The Trojans play their final home match of the 2003 season on Saturday, April 19, when they host No. 7 Stanford at noon at Marks Tennis Stadium. #4 California 5, #21 USC 2
Doubles
Singles (1) #53 Prakash Amritraj (USC) def. John Paul Fruttero (Cal) - 7-5, 7-5 (2) #33 Conor Niland (Cal) def. Daniel Langre (USC) - 6-2, 6-2 (3) #111 Or Dekel (Cal) def. #115 Johan Berg (USC) - 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 (4) #58 Robert Kowalczyk (Cal) def. Parker Collins (USC) - 6-1, 6-0 (5) Balazs Veress (Cal) def. Jeff Kazarian (USC) - 6-1, 6-2 (6) Wayne Wong (Cal) def. Scott Patterson (USC) - 6-0, 6-4* |
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