This article was originally published on April 1, 2023.
The No. 42 Arizona State (11-7) men’s tennis team fell short against No.9 USC (11-5) Friday, losing 6-1.
The Sun Devils had some missed opportunities during a couple matches as they combined to with just two match wins on the day.
Jacob Bullard and Constantinos Koshis’s chemistry was unmatched in their doubles match as they won 6-1 against USC’s Bradley Frye and Peter Makk. Spencer Brachman and Max McKennon came up short in their match against Ryan Colby and Stefan Dostanic losing 6-2.
The doubles point came down to the doubles match played by Roi Ginat and Murphy Cassone against Wojtek Marek and Samuel Rubell. They ultimately could not hang on to win, losing a nail biter 7-5.
Singles did not get easier for the Sun Devils as they lost four of their opening sets to start things off. Makk was the first to win after a 6-1, 6-0 sweep against Bullard.
The Sun Devils took four matches to the third set, but only came out on top in one of them. Ginat pulled off a tiebreak victory against Frye 7-5,5-7,1-0.
McKennon felt the Sun Devils could have capitalized on key moments throughout several matches.
“I feel like we’re playing really good tennis right now, it’s just coming down to those big moments, and we’re just not getting [them] right now and that obviously needs to change if we want to do well in a tough conference,” McKennon said.
Despite losing to the ninth-ranked team in the country, ASU coach Matt Hill believed there were plenty of positives to take away from the matchup.
“I thought we got ourselves in a position to win against a top 10 team,” Hill said. “[We were] super competitive, in a position to win. [We] didn’t win them all, but all you can ask is they do everything they can to put themselves in a position to win.”
The Sun Devils will look to bounce back on Sunday as they will host the UCLA Bruins.
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