Trojans Reach Tennis Final

The 11th-seeded USC men’s tennis team rallied Monday to advance to today’s NCAA tournament finals against Georgia at College Station, Texas, in a 4-3 victory over No. 2 Tennessee.

Top-seeded Georgia (29-3) defeated No. 4 UCLA, 4-2, in the night semifinal at Texas A&M;’s courts. In the afternoon, USC (23-5) showed its depth by coming back from a 3-2 deficit. USC’s Dick Leach will coach his last match today after 23 seasons. The Trojans have won 15 national titles, three under Leach.

USC’s No. 3 singles player, Prakash Amritraj, and No. 5 singles player, Daniel Langre, won their three-set matches to earn the last two points for the Trojans.

Amritraj’s 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 victory over Tennessee’s Adam Carey clinched the team victory. Minutes earlier, Langre won a third-set tiebreaker to defeat Simon Rea, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2). Also winning for USC were No. 4 singles Nick Rainey and No. 6 singles Rueben Torres.

After losing the doubles points, UCLA (23-6) earned singles victories at the No. 3 (Marcin Matkowski) and No. 4 (Jean-Julien Rojer) spots, before defending champion Georgia closed it out with victories at Nos. 1, 5 and 6.