The UCLA men’s tennis team’s run to the NCAA Championship was washed away in the rain Monday night.
The Bruins were not able to conquer their crosstown rival as they fell to the No. 1 USC Trojans by a score of 4-1.
After both teams split the first two doubles matches, the match on the middle court came down to the final point of a tiebreaker. The Trojans were able to take the point as well as an early lead in the match.
Soon after singles started, lightning was sighted in the area and a weather delay was imposed. The rain followed shortly thereafter.
The singles matches were moved to the inside courts but were to be played only two at a time. The other players would have to sit and wait for the other matches to finish before they could take the court.
This put UCLA at a big disadvantage as both sophomore Clay Thompson and redshirt senior Nick Meister had to take the courts first and were the only two Bruins currently losing their matches.
Both would end up losing their matches, putting UCLA in a 3-0 hole and leaving the remaining four guys with their backs against the wall.
After sitting for over an hour, freshman Marcos Giron would put a point on the board for the Bruins, but freshman Dennis Novikov lost a third set tiebreaker to send USC to the NCAA Championship game.