Around the League: Feb. 21
(MacKenzie Coffman/Assistant Photo editor)
Men’s basketball
Sam Connon, assistant Sports editor
With three weekends left on the Pac-12 slate, one team stands above the rest.
Washington (21-5, 12-1 Pac-12) may have lost its bid at an undefeated conference season against Arizona State (18-8, 9-5) on Feb. 9, but the Huskies still have a 3.5-game hold on first place.
Arizona State pulled even with Oregon State (16-8, 8-4) to take a share of second place when it beat Stanford (14-12, 7-7) 80-62 on Wednesday night. Just 2.5 games separate the second-place Sun Devils from the ninth-place Bruins.
Colorado (16-10, 7-7) was the lone Pac-12 team to boast a winning streak longer than two games entering this week, but it saw its five-game winning streak broken at the hands of Washington State (11-15, 4-9) on Wednesday.
Two of the conference’s bottom three teams – Cal (5-20, 0-13) and Arizona (14-12, 5-8) – will face off Thursday, but the Golden Bears are a near-lock to finish in last place.
Oregon (15-10, 6-6) is half a game behind USC (14-12, 7-6) and half a game ahead of UCLA (13-13, 6-7). The Bruins will play the Ducks on Saturday and will host the Trojans on Feb. 28.
Gymnastics
Angie Forburger, assistant Sports editor
For the fourth time this season, all eight Pac-12 gymnastics teams are ranked in the top 25.
No. 2 UCLA (6-0, 5-0 Pac-12) and No. 4 Utah (7-0, 5-0) are both still undefeated – but not for long. The Bruins and Utes will face off Saturday in Salt Lake City. UCLA is coming off its highest-scoring meet of the season against No. 25 Arizona (1-5, 1-4), while Utah most recently took down No. 23 Stanford (0-5, 0-5).
Prior to their loss to the Bruins, the Wildcats suffered back-to-back losses to the Utes and No. 12 Oregon State Beavers (3-2, 3-2). Arizona will next travel to Stanford on Sunday.
The Cardinal has yet to win a Pac-12 dual meet and, after hosting the Wildcats, will only have one more meet remaining against the Bruins before the Pac-12 championships.
The Beavers took home their second straight win with a victory over the No. 15 California Golden Bears (1-4, 1-3) on Sunday. Oregon State will next travel to No. 20 Arizona State (2-2, 1-2) for its last Pac-12 dual meet of the season.
Coming off a win over Stanford on Feb. 10, Arizona State finished in third place at Friday’s Perfect 10 Challenge in Oklahoma City against No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 18 Washington (2-3, 2-2) and George Washington.
The Huskies finished in second place at the Challenge and will next head to Berkeley on Saturday in their final Pac-12 dual meet this year.
After finishing in first place at a tri-meet against Arizona State and No. 17 BYU on Feb. 2, Cal has dropped two straight meets against Utah and Oregon State.
The Pac-12 championships in West Valley City, Utah are just over a month away.
Men’s tennis
Gabriel McCarthy, assistant Sports editor
Teams across the Pac-12 competed at the ITA indoor championships this weekend.
No. 14 UCLA men’s tennis (4-3) defeated No. 12 Notre Dame 4-1 in the round of 16 before falling to No. 2 Wake Forest 3-4 in the quarterfinals. The latter match was decided by the contest between UCLA freshman Mathew Tsolakyan and Wake Forest’s Melios Efstathiou at No. 4 singles, where Tsolakyan lost. The Bruins’ highest appearance in the ITA singles rankings is freshman Govind Nanda at No. 53.
No. 24 USC (6-5) bested No. 7 Florida in its first round of tournament play before falling to No. 3 Texas 0-4 in the quarterfinal round. USC finished consolation play with a loss to No. 4 Virginia 1-4. The Trojans’ Daniel Cukierman fell to No. 11 in the most recent ITA singles rankings from his previous rank of No. 4.
No. 6 Stanford (7-2) fell to Virginia 2-4 in its first round of tournament play. However, Stanford posted two wins in consolation play over No. 30 Tulane and Florida, winning 4-0 and 4-1, respectively. Stanford’s highest-ranked singles player is Axel Geller, appearing at No. 13 in the ITA singles rankings.
The Pac-12 player ranked the highest in the ITA singles rankings is USC’s Cukierman, whereas the highest-ranked doubles pair is Brandon Holt and Riley Smith of USC – appearing at No. 21 in the ITA doubles rankings.
