Virginia falls to USC in NCAA quarterfinals

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The pain of the only loss in a season coming at the NCAA tennis tournament for the second consecutive season was evident by how much Virginia coach Brian Boland kept referring to it after almost every question.
The No. 1-seed Cavaliers (32-1) were upset, 4-0, by eighth-seeded Southern California (22-5) in the quarterfinals on Sunday, in a match that started at noon on Saturday, but had to be finished the following morning because of a six-hour rainstorm.
“I guess it hasn’t sunk in yet ... we were well prepared, well conditioned and we left it on the court but it’s really, really disappointing,” Boland said. “We’ve been back here now our sixth straight year and it never gets easier.”
It marked the second straight season the Cavaliers came in as the No. 1 seed and were knocked out before reaching the final. Georgia, which went on to win the title in 2008, ousted then-undefeated Virginia,
4-3.
“They both hurt. It’s really, really disappointing we are sitting here again in a similar situation, but that’s sports,” Boland said. “If you’re not willing to have the potential and disappointments, you can’t keep coming back here through this pain.”
Boland believed the pressure of only losing in the tournament last season and coming into this weekend of being undefeated had nothing to do with the loss.
Virginia is 56-0 going into the NCAA tournament over the past two seasons and 7-2 in the tournament.
“No, not at all, I don’t think it [being undefeated] adds any pressure unless you allow it to. [We are] never going to go out and try to lose a match [to take that pressure away],” Boland said. “Other teams have suggested to me it would be a good idea particularly when we play them.
“I think we put ourselves in the best possible position two years in a row to win the championship being the one seed, being undefeated and we are going to try and do it again next year,” Boland said. “And, sooner or later we’ll get it done.”
The Cavaliers had to sit on a 1-0 deficit for nearly 20 hours after Saturday’s rain delay. Boland believed, if anything, that could have helped his team because the Trojans could not take that momentum into the singles matches.
It didn’t appear to affect USC and neither did the lower temperatures, which stayed in the high 60s throughout the match, as the Trojans got off to fast starts in most of the matches, especially at No. 1 and No. 5.
“No matter what I kept thinking, I’m sleeping better than Brian [Boland],” Southern Cal coach Peter Smith said about the delay. “I felt like we stole a point yesterday, but they stole the point from us two years ago, so it was payback.”
The Trojans’ Robert Farah, ranked No. 8, broke 14th-ranked Dominic Inglot to go up 3-2 and then again to win the first set. He then made the second set look even easier, closing it out at love for a 6-3, 6-1 victory and a 2-0 Trojan lead.
“We’re out there playing at 9:00,
7 a.m. Pacific time, and you just have to roll with it,” Smith said. “You got 1-0, and you really want someone to step up and make it 2-0. Robert did that and everyone sees the score, it’s a train and it’s going down the track, and the faster it goes the harder it is to stop and it just got going.”
It was much longer and Steve Johnson, a finalist in the Pac-10 singles tournament, put away Sanam Singh,
6-3, 6-4, at No. 2.
Johnson’s point to get to match point showed how well the Trojans were on top of their game.
He hit a stretch backhand volley on the run for a winner to make it 40-love. Smith said he was so impressed with the shot he had to walk out and give his player a fist pump.
“They deserved to win today. They were the better team on the court,” Boland said. “That being said, we fought hard, but there were some things we needed to do better to find four points against USC today and yesterday, since it was a two-day match, which is one thing new to us.”
Houston Barrick, at No. 4, was one of the Cavaliers that got off to a good start, winning 6-4 in the opener. Senior Abdullah Magdas battled back in the second to win 6-2 and then got up two breaks at 5-1.
Barrick broke back, held serve and saved to match points before Magdas hit a forehand winner to put the Trojans in the semifinals against Texas, which beat defending champion Georgia.
“He’s going to manage somehow to win points and that’s what happened,” Magdas said of the trouble he had closing the deal. “He put pressure on me and played the right shots.”
When the match ended, Lee Singer was leading at No. 6, 7-6, 5-2.
Drew Courtney was down a set and in the tiebreaker of the second set, while Michael Shabaz was behind 3-1 after splitting sets.
“The last half hour of that match I still had a lot of hope. Houston is one of those guys that until the last ball is hit, it’s never over,” Boland said. “Michael was hanging in there and I feel the same way about Drew Courtney, and Lee Singer was up.
“I never thought the match was over until Magnus finished the final point, especially when playing Houston Barrick, who’s as tough as they come.”
Aces
The last time a No. 1 seed was knocked out by a team ranked as low as No. 8 was when Southern Cal at No. 11 beat No. 1 Georgia in 2002 for the title. That match was also at Texas A&M. ... Virginia had only loss the doubles point twice before falling to Southern Cal. The Cavaliers came back to beat UCLA and Duke, 4-3.