Men’s tennis loses close game to USC in Pac-12 championship final

Saturday was a night built for comebacks for UCLA men’s tennis.

UCLA lost the doubles point to go down 1-0 and immediately followed that by losing four of the six first sets in singles. Twice, though, the Bruins rebounded from a deficit to tie their dual match against the USC Trojans.

But the final comeback ultimately didn’t come to fruition.

After UCLA rallied to tie the match after being down 3-1, senior Gage Brymer fell short in his three-set effort to Brandon Holt. That match gave the No. 3-seed Trojans (25-5, 5-2 Pac-12) a 4-3 victory over the No. 1-seed Bruins (19-5, 6-0), clinching USC’s third Pac-12 championship since team competition at the tournament started in 2012.

“We know USC’s a great team. We’ve been fortunate to beat them a couple times and we’ve lost a couple times,” said coach Billy Martin. “We could play 10 times, and it might be 5-5. The doubles (loss) was a tough one, but I really felt proud of the team – they lost like champions.”

Martin trotted out a slightly different lineup from the teams’ matchup a week earlier, moving senior Joe Di Giulio up from No. 6 singles to No. 5 and substituting sophomore Maxime Cressy at No. 6. Di Giulio’s return from injury two weeks ago left Cressy as the odd man out in the singles lineup, but after Martin gave him the green light Saturday, Cressy defeated USC’s Riley Smith 7-6, 6-4.

“I just focus on my doubles match and accept whatever coach’s decision is,” Cressy said. “My game plan was to make as many returns as possible and vary my serves a lot while having a big first-serve percentage. I was just focused on blocking the ball back because he doesn’t like the short, low balls.”

Cressy’s win came minutes after junior Logan Staggs pulled off a three-set comeback victory over Jack Jaede 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, which gave the Bruins their second point. Staggs said his execution on his passing shots was the key in the second and third sets, as Jaede constantly came to the net as part of his serve-and-volley approach. The win was Staggs’ second over Jaede this year after beating the Trojan in straight sets a week earlier.

The top two courts, however, were almost mirror matches from the previous week.

Junior Martin Redlicki put UCLA on the board with a straight-sets victory over Nick Crystal, a repeat of Redlicki’s match-clinching win the week before. On court one, Brymer and Holt were again locked in a three-set battle as both teams and the crowd packed around the last remaining court.

The two players traded holds for the first nine games of the set, but they had very different paths. Holt did not face a break point, while Brymer had nine in the last four of his five service games – he faced deuce point while serving down 2-1 and on his subsequent serves had deficits of 30-40, 15-40, and 0-40.

And while the senior repeatedly managed to hold serve by hitting a bevy of forehand winners and forcing Holt into forehand errors, Brymer’s tightrope act eventually ended. Serving down 30-40 and five games to four, Brymer again tried to pressure the USC freshman into an error, but Holt smashed a forehand crosscourt to win the championship.

The Bruins and Trojans have now split their four meetings this season, with both teams winning once at home and once on a neutral court.

“We’re pretty even,” Staggs said. “I think they’ll be ahead of us in the rankings leading into NCAAs, but we’re neck and neck. We’re as even as we can get.”

A day earlier, UCLA swept Stanford in the semifinal. The Bruins won the doubles point for the first time in eight dual matches versus the Cardinal behind victories at courts one and two. In singles, freshman Evan Zhu, Staggs and Cressy each defeated their opponents in straight sets for the 4-0 margin.

The No. 5 Bruins will find out who they will face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday afternoon. The top 16 schools will host four-team regionals, with the winner of each advancing to the round of 16 in Athens, Georgia.