Road Trip Ends with Loss to No. 7 USC

LOS -- The BYU men's tennis team (1-2) ended its three-day California road trip Saturday with a tough loss to the defending national champions of USC (2-0). The No. 7 ranked Trojans swept the Cougars in both singles and doubles to win the match 7-0.

BYU head coach Jim Osborne knew coming into this weekend's matches that his team was going to come up against some tough competition.

"USC is a great team," Osborne said. "They showed today why they were last year's national champions and why they are ranked in the top ten nationally this season."

The Trojans were able to capture the doubles point by winning at all three doubles positions, including an upset at No. 1 doubles with Prakash Amritraj and Daniel Langre of USC defeating BYU's seventh-ranked Carlos Lozano and Erik Nyman, 9-7.

USC then went on to finish the dual match by winning all six singles matches in straight sets.

"It is always hard to start the season on the road against good teams," Osborne said. "We are looking forward to playing at home next weekend."

The Cougars will continue the season next week when they host New Mexico St. on Friday, Jan. 31 and Oregon on Saturday, Feb. 1 in Provo.

#7 USC def. #64 BYU, 7-0
Doubles
(1) Amritraj/Langre (USC) def. #7 Lozano/Nyman (BYU)      9-7
(2) Wright/Kazarian (USC) def. Lechuga/Rudjuk (BYU)       8-1
(3) Berg/Collins (USC) def. Medina/Olsen (BYU)            8-6
USC wins doubles point.
Singles
(1) Prakash Amritraj (USC) def. #106 Carlos Lozano (BYU)  6-3, 7-6
(2) #75 Johan Berg (USC) def. Erik Nyman (BYU)            6-3, 7-6
(3) Daniel Langre (USC) def. Jose Luis Lechuga (BYU)      6-1, 6-2
(4) Ruben Torres (USC) def. Anton Rudjuk (BYU)            6-4, 6-3
(5) Parker Collins (USC) def. Alonso Medina (BYU)         6-2, 7-6
(6) Scott Patterson (USC) def. Jeff Olsen (BYU)           6-3, 6-3