No. 20 Men’s Tennis Opens Pac-12 Play in LA

TEMPE – After finishing second in the Ed Collins Classic last weekend in San Diego, No. 20 Arizona State men’s tennis (12-6) will take the I-5 North to Los Angeles for its first two Pac-12 matches of the season against No. 24 UCLA (Friday at 2 p.m. MST) and No. 47 USC (Sunday at 1 p.m. MST). Fans can watch Friday’s match on the UCLA Live Stream and Sunday’s match on Playsight. Follow along with the action via live stats, which will be made available for both matches.

SUN DEVIL NOTABLES

• The Sun Devils continue to represent in this week’s singles and doubles polls. In the latest ITA rankings, Murphy Cassone (9-4) is No. 3 in singles and Bor Artnak (10-2) is No. 94 in singles. Partners Artnak/Max McKennon are No. 62 in doubles.
• In the Ed Collins Classic Final against No. 14 Universsity of San Diego, Artnak picked up his team-high 10th singles victory of the season.
• Cassone won his ninth singles match of the season in the Ed Collins Classic Semifinals victory over Princeton, which ties him for second-most on the team with McKennon (9-6).
• The duos of Artnak/Cassone and Daniel Phillips/Nicola Cigna helped the Sun Devils win the doubles match against San Diego.

PREVIEWING THE NO. 24 BRUINS (7-4)

• After dropping their first two non conference matchups of the season against top-20 opponents,  UCLA has won seven of their last nine matches. The Bruins are coming off a 4-3 upset victory over No. 11 Harvard. 
• UCLA is 1-4 against top-20 ranked opponents this season. 
• In the latest ITA singles rankings, Bruins senior Govind Nanda (7-5) is No. 28 in singles.
• Last season, the Bruins finished with a 12-11 overall record (3-5 Pac-12), fell to Utah in the Pac-12 Quarterfinals and lost to Northwestern in the first round of the NCAA Championships.

PREVIEWING THE NO. 47 TROJANS (5-9)

• In their last match, USC was defeated by No. 9 Texas 6-1 on March 17. USC will host No. 6 Arizona on Friday.
• USC is 0-5 against top-20 ranked opponents this season.
• There are three Trojans ranked in the latest ITA singles rankings: junior Peter Makk (73), freshman Volodymyr Iakubenko (106) and senior Lodewijk Weststrate (122). USC also has one ranked doubles pair in senior Stefan Dostanic and sophomore Oscar Weightman (80).
• Last season, the Trojans went 21-8 overall (6-2 Pac-12), won the Pac-12 Championship after defeating No….