There was too much electricity in the air for the rivals UCLA and USC to finish their semifinal match outdoors.
Lightning struck a few short miles from the Dan Magill Tennis Complex shortly after UCLA lost the doubles point. The teams were forced to move to the indoor courts.
The No. 4 Bruins went on to lose 4-1 to the top-seeded Trojans.
Redshirt senior Nick Meister and sophomore Clay Thompson both lost in straight sets on courts No. 2 and 1, respectively.
In both of their two previous matches against the Trojans, the Bruins won the No. 2 match against the Trojans’ Ray Sarmiento. It was never close on Monday.
Down 3-0, UCLA still clung to a little hope after freshmen Dennis Novikov and Marcos Giron both won their first sets.
Giron went on to win his match in straight sets, while Novikov dropped his second set to highly touted Trojan Daniel Nguyen. Novikov lost to Nguyen in straight sets during their previous matchup.
While Novikov continued to battle, sophomore Adrien Puget started out hot. Picking up where Giron left off, Puget went up 3-1 in his first set and allowed the Bruins to keep cheering.
But his match was secondary to Novikov’s, which reached a tiebreaker. The freshman immediately went down 2-0 to Nguyen and never recovered.
Novikov’s loss gave USC the victory and its fourth-straight berth in the title match.
In the aftermath of the loss, an optimistic tweet was sent out by UCLA’s ever-positive leader, Thompson. His tweet said, “Good effort boys… Been an amazing season and we fought so hard. Final four is nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s get that ring next time.”
Compiled by Andy Thompson, Bruin Sports contributor.