NCAA Tennis: UCLA Bruins beat USC Trojans to notch first win over crosstown rivals in five years

The NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships play-ins on Friday (March 29) saw the UCLA men’s tennis team defeat USC 4-1 at David X. Marks Tennis Stadium in Los Angeles. This victory was especially significant as it marked the end of the Bruins’ eight-match losing streak against the Trojans.

The Trojans took an early lead on the scoreboard when Peter Makk and Lodewijk Weststrate defeated Timothy Li and Giacomo Revelli with a score of 6-2. However, the UCLA Bruins, who have a total of 16 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, equalized in the second doubles match of the tie with a 6-3 win by Spencer Johnson and Emon Van Loben Sels over Samuel Rubell and Niroop Vallabhaneni.

After securing the final doubles rubber with a hard-fought 7-5 victory against USC’s Volodymyr Iakubenko and Karl Lee, Govind Nanda and Alexander Hoogmartens gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Once the singles matches began, the play-in encounter was dominated by UCLA.

Jorge Plans Gonzalez secured a 3-1 lead for the 16-time Division I champions with his 6-1, 7-5 victory over Niroop Vallabhaneni of the Trojans. The tie was ultimately sealed at 4-1 by Alexander Hoogmartens, who rallied from a set down to defeat his USC counterpart Karl Lee 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Additionally, Govind Nanda, Giacomo Revelli and Spencer Johnson all competed in singles matches, however, their results were not factored into the overall match score. The Bruins’ most recent victory against their rivals was in the 2018-19 season, defeating the Trojans 4-3 in Winston-Salem.

In the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships, the UCLA men’s tennis team has a total of 36 wins against USC, with 17 of those victories being achieved on their home turf.

UCLA Holds the Record for Most NCAA Division I Championships with 116 Titles

The UCLA Bruins have emerged victorious a staggering 16 times at the NCAA Division I Championships, which is the yearly men’s intercollegiate championship supported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The volleyball team at the Los Angeles-based university has won the most titles (20) out of all other college sports teams, for academic purposes. In 1950, UCLA secured their first intercollegiate tennis title, defeating their crosstown rivals USC in the championship match.

In 1883, the first intercollegiate tennis championship was held, with the Harvard Crimson winning both the singles and doubles titles. However, it was not until 1946 that the NCAA officially recognized the annual tournament, despite it being organized years earlier.