Men's Tennis Falls to USC in NCAA Semifinals

There are certain teams that sports fans just hate. Some are universal (the Yankees, for instance; or Duke Basketball). Some are more team-specific.

Virginia fans are really starting to hate the Southern Cal men's tennis team.

For the fifth time in six years, the Trojans have eliminated the Cavaliers from the NCAA tournament.

This iteration, it was the #1 seed Trojans defeating the #4 seed Cavaliers in the semifinals.

But regardless of the seeding and the round, the script was the same: A tough, hard-fought match, with a little bit of controversy, and a USC win.

To put this annoyance that is USC in perspective, think about it this way: Virginia has lost nine matches in the last 6 seasons. Yes, that's right. NINE. Of those nine losses, five of them have been to USC, all in the NCAA tournament. You've also got two losses to Ohio State, one to UCLA and one to Kentucky.

I'm not going to recap the entire match as the loss is still a bit too raw at the moment. But I'll give you some tidbits:

• The 'Hoos lost the doubles point and thus were in a hole from early on.
• Ryan Shane was the only Cavalier to score a point, winning in straight sets 1 & 4.
• Thai Kwiatkowski was the lone DNF. Both of his first two sets, went to a tie-breaker. He trailed 1-3 in the third set.
• Senior Alex Domijian and Freshman J.C. Aragone both lost at about the same time to clinch the match for USC, even though the video feed didn't seem to show it that way. Then again, the video feed didn't seem to show much.