TCU Drops Rematch with No. 9 USC

Friday, February 26

Los Angeles, Calif.

7 PM

TCU

USC

TCU Drops Rematch with No. 9 USC

2/26/2021 10:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

The Horned Frogs fail to record back-to-back wins against the Trojans

FORT WORTH – After beating then No. 1 USC at ITA Indoors nearly two weeks ago, No. 5 TCU men's tennis (7-3) couldn't get the road rematch, falling, 4-0, to the Trojans at Marks Stadium in Los Angeles, California on Friday night.

"We knew coming in here to battle would be a challenge and we would need to play and compete well in all 9 spots," head coach David Roditi said. "Unfortunately, we didn't do it as well as USC did and we got beat 4-0. The positive is that we got it going after 90 minutes and we had our chances to possibly win. USC didn't allow it and that's credit to them. We will do our best to learn from tonight, get a good practice tomorrow and battle a very good team in Pepperdine. I do want to thank the USC non-coaching staff for working so hard to keep us safe and able to compete."

The Horned Frogs battled hard throughout the evening, making a big push in the second singles set to provide a path to victory. But an unfortunate second set tiebreaker result gave the Trojans a 3-0 lead and USC's Daniel Cukierman proved his national No. 1 ranking by overcoming a 3-0 deficit on court one to clinch the victory for USC.

Juan Martín was leading his match at No. 6 (7-6, 4-5), Tomas Jirousek was on serve in his third set (2-6, 6-3, 3-3) and Sander Jong was leading his tiebreaker in the second (5-7, 6-6) when the match was clinched.

SINGLES QUICK HITS

TCU is now 30-15 in singles matches this dual season after dropping three tonight.
Juan Martín
Alastair Gray falls to 8-2 in singles matches this season, 6-2 against ranked opponents, 3-1 in tiebreakers and 16-6 overall this season.
Fomba drops to 7-2 in singles matches this season and 3-2 against ranked opponents.
This was his first career loss at No. 1 singles. He is now 3-1 at the top spot.
Fomba played No. 1 Daniel Cukierman for the second time in his career tonight. Both matches went to three sets.
This was the first time TCU has failed to collect a point in 19 matches.

Singles Results
1. #1 Daniel Cukierman (USC) def. #47 Luc Fomba (TCU): 6-1, 3-6, 6-3*
2. #19 Riley Smith (USC) def. #21 Alastair Gray (TCU): 6-3, 7-6 (3)
3. #26 Mor Bulis (USC) vs. #113 Sander Jong (TCU): 7-5, 6-6 susp.
4. Bradley Frye (USC) vs. Tomas Jirousek (TCU): 6-2, 3-6, 4-5 susp.
5. Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) def. Tadeas Paroulek (TCU): 6-4, 6-1
6. Jake Sands (USC) vs. Juan Martin (TCU): 6-7 (3), 4-4 susp.
Order of finish: 5, 2, 1*

Doubles Results
1. #1 Daniel Cukierman/Riley Smith (USC) def. Luc Fomba/Alastair Gray (TCU): 6-3
2. Stefan Dostanic/Bradley Frye (USC) def. Jake Fearnley/Bertus Kruger (TCU): 6-3
3. #24 Sander Jong/Tadeas Paroulek (TCU) vs. Mor Bulis/Sean Holt (USC): 3-5
Order of finish: 1, 2

Up Next
The Horned Frogs head to Malibu for a Sunday morning dual. First serve is set for noon, local time. This will be the 20^th meeting between the two schools. Pepperdine leads the all-time series, 14-5. However, the Frogs are riding a three-match winning streak in the series. TCU is 3-0 against Pepperdine in the Roditi era.

For more information on TCU men's tennis, visit gofrogs.com and follow the team on social media: @TCUMensTennis on twitter, Facebook and the all