While UCLA’s Harel Srugo was busy doing his patented jog to pick up balls between points and trotting to the bench at changeovers, USC’s Robert Farah was hunched over on the other side of the net trying desperately to catch his breath.
It was of no use.
Srugo forced Farah to run around aimlessly in hopes of staying in the point within a matter of seconds.
“Once I saw that Farah was hunched over after every point, I felt comfortable that Harel would be able to pull out a win,” said junior Michael Look, one of Srugo’s teammates. “Harel just wasn’t missing anything.”
The scene told the story of the afternoon: The underdog team ran around doing anything and everything to fight its way out of the grasp of a visibly distraught favorite.
No. 5 UCLA upset No. 4 USC 4-3 on Friday and in the process captured a fifth straight conference championship by dealing the Trojans their first home loss since 2006.
There was never much pressure on the Bruins (21-1, 7-0 Pac-10). They weren’t supposed to be undefeated in conference play at this juncture. Nor were they supposed to even give the Trojans (19-4, 6-1 Pac-10) the least bit of a challenge ““ especially at Marks Tennis Stadium.
But that was at the beginning of the season, before the team realized just how talented it was and how capable it was of putting together an unforgettable year.
On Friday afternoon, the Bruins battled the odds once again, overcoming a 7-3 deficit in doubles play on court No. 3 to pull out a 9-8 victory, clinching the point.
The win by the UCLA duo of Look and senior Jeremy Drean over USC’s Andrew Piotrowski and Jaak Poldma provided the Bruins with the extra boost that they’d need going into singles action.
“We just said, “˜We weren’t meant to win this match, so let’s just go out there and have some fun,'” Look said.
“We loosened up and started hitting the balls, and they tightened up, and the next thing you know, we’re back in the match.”
It took a lot of encouragement and reminding from Drean to keep Look positive.
While everyone had considered the doubles point to belong to USC, Drean kept reminding his teammate that he had been on the opposite side of a similar comeback last season. In that instance, Drean was paired with fellow Frenchman and senior Mathieu Dehaine, also against the crosstown rival.
“He was just telling me at every changeover and between every point that we were still in it,” Look said.
With the doubles point secured, the Bruins got wins from Look and freshman Nick Meister on courts No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, while USC grabbed wins on courts 3 and 6, putting the match in a situation similar to last year’s Pac-10 finale.
Both teams were undefeated in 2007 when they met at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in a showdown that was decided on court No. 1 by Benjamin Kohlloeffel, and with freshman Holden Seguso battling Kaes Van’t Hof in the third set, Friday’s match was going to be decided on court No. 1 as well.
After Srugo earned a late break against Farah, he served for the match. Although Farah was able to fight off one match point and force deuce, Srugo proved too much in the end, reeling off two straight points for the win.
“He did a great job of leading us,” UCLA coach Billy Martin said of Srugo’s play. “He was able to keep the crowd out of it and keep the pressure on Farah.”
With the regular season now behind them, the Bruins will shift their attention to an even greater goal: a national championship.
After losing a very close match to No. 1 Virginia earlier this season, the Bruins are comfortable playing the role of the persistent underdog, no matter the size of the opponent.