Athletics Roundup: Men's Tennis wins WCC; Women's Tennis 2nd; Baseball, Track, Golf, Softball, Rowing

Athletics Roundup: Men's Tennis wins WCC; Women's Tennis 2nd; Baseball, Track, Golf, Softball, Rowing

Garrett Kurtz, men's tennis

A 4-0 home sweep of University of the Pacific on April 20 clinched the West Coast Conference regular-season title for the University of San Diego men's tennis team for the fifth time in six seasons with a chance at more accolades ahead.

The Toreros' (18-4 overall, 8-1 WCC) win over Pacific clinched the title and the No. 1 seed heading into this week's WCC Championship Tournament. USD gets a bye all the way to the semifinals, meaning they'll await a challenger for a 1:30 p.m. match on Friday. A win there means playing for the WCC Tournament title on Saturday and a shot at winning USD's sixth straight title. Furthermore, winning the WCC Tournament title also means earning the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Against Pacific, USD took two of three matches to claim the doubles point with the teams of August Holmgren and Joel Gamerov and Gui Osorio and Nico Borter earning wins at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. In singles play, Osorio, Gamerov and Garrett Kurtz won at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 to secure the match win at the Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.

Before the match with Pacific, the Toreros honored their lone senior, Pratt Keerasuntonpong, in what was their home finale. He competed in doubles against Pacific, teaming with Noah Dufort as the No. 3 team.

Next Matches: USD vs. Team to be determined (semifinals), Friday, 1:30 p.m. at West Coast Conference Team Tournament Championships, Biszantz Family Tennis Center, Claremont, Calif.; USD-TBD vs. Team TBD (WCC Title Match), Saturday, Time TBA, Biszantz Family Tennis Center, Claremont, Calif.

Women's Tennis

The University of San Diego women's tennis team is back on another win streak, this time winning its final two regular-season WCC matches on the road against Saint Mary's and Pacific on April 19 and 20, respectively, to secure second-place and the No. 2 seed in the upcoming WCC Team Championship Tournament.

USD (17-3 overall, 8-1 WCC) finished second to regular-season champion Pepperdine, who will be the top seed in the tournament title hunt. USD, recording its best regular-season finish since 2012, earns a bye all the way to the semifinals. 

The Toreros defeated Saint Mary's 4-2 on April 19 in Moraga, Calif., rallying from an 0-2 deficit after losing the doubles point and the first singles match. Leading the charge in singles to claim the win were Maria-Paula Torres at No. 5 singles, Gemma Garcia at No. 2, Solymar Colling at No. 1 and Kati Kukaras at No. 4 was the clinching point.

From there, USD travelled down to Stockton, Calif., for the Pacific match. USD earned a 4-0 sweep with the doubles point and three singles matches. The teams of Torres-Colling and Kukaras-Garcia won to gain the doubles point. In singles, Colling at No. 1, Garcia at No. 2 and Maria Tyrina at No. 6 earned wins with Tyrina's clinching the match.

Next Matches: USD vs. Team TBD, Friday, 10 a.m., at West Coast Conference Team Tournament Championships, Biszantz Family Tennis Center, Claremont, Calif.; USD-TBD vs. Team TBD (WCC Title Match), Saturday, Time TBA, Biszantz Family Tennis Center, Claremont, Calif.

Baseball

Good news from last week: The USD baseball team won three of its four scheduled games and was able to win a West Coast Conference three-game series at home against Portland, taking two of three. The bad news? The one loss USD suffered came in Saturday's finale against Portland, a 20-0 defeat.

This is why each game and each day is its own game, its own day. USD had three good games, three good days with a 5-4 win over Cal Baptist of Riverside on April 16, a 4-3, 10-inning win against Portland on April 18 and a 10-2 win over Portland on Friday. And USD then had one game, one day on Saturday that wasn't so good.

USD (25-15 overall, 9-9 in WCC play) had a little something different each game last week. Against Cal Baptist, it was USD's bullpen pitching five scoreless innings and getting the go-ahead run on an error by CBU to earn the nonconference win.

Against Portland on Thursday, Jeff Houghtby's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Toreros the series-opening win. Relief pitcher Travis Kuhn retired 10 of the 12 Portland batters he faced to keep USD in the hunt. On Saturday, USD's offense got 14 hits, had a six-run first inning and took care of business. Adam Kerner and Ripken Reyes each had three hits, Houghtby had three RBI, Kerner and Cody Jefferis had two RBI each. Grady Miller went seven innings, scattered five hits, gave up the two runs and struck out five to get the win. 

Sunday's lopsided loss was only a 1-0 Portland lead through three innings. But the Pilots scored runs in each inning from the fourth on, the biggest output being a nine-run eighth. USD used seven pitchers. Cody Hawken drove in seven runs and the Pilots' leadoff hitter Chad Stevens was 4-for-7 at the plate. USD was limited to one hit, a Houghtby double in the second inning, by Portland starter Chris Clements, who went eight innings, walked three and struck out seven.

Next Games: USD hosts San Diego State, Tuesday, 6 p.m., Fowler Park; USD hosts Hawaii, Wednesday, 6 p.m., Fowler Park; USD at Saint Mary's, Friday-Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m., 1 p.m., 1 p.m., Moraga, Calif.

Women's Track

Hannah Rasmussen won the Open A division of the 10,000-meter run at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on April 18 with a personal best time of 35 minutes, 22.57 seconds. Torero teammate Madison Lambros was 16th in 37:10.73.

Also last week, USD had some runners compete at the Cal State Los Angeles Twilight Open. Courtney Camden finished second in her 5,000-meter race in a personal-best time of 18:38.70. Teammates Beth Wade finished fourth in 18:42.35, Hailey Purtzer was eighth in 19:17.53, a personal best, and Erin Duncan was 13th in 20:10.92.

Next Meet: USD runners at Steve Scott Invitational, Saturday, at UC Irvine.

Golf

The USD men's golf team travelled to Provo, Utah, and came away with a 12th-place finish among 15 teams at the PING Cougar Classic. The Toreros' 881 score for three rounds (295-292-294) gave them a spot ahead of University of Washington, Southern Utah and Utah State. BYU won its tournament with an 840 total score.

Top individuals for the Toreros were George Gardner, who had a 2-over-par 218 (73-73-72) to finish tied for 37th, and Yash Majmudar was 57th with scores of 74-73-75.

Next Tournament: USD at West Coast Conference Championship Tournament, Thursday-Saturday, The Reserve at Spanos Park, Stockton, Calif.

Softball

Following a bye week last week, the USD softball team will return to West Coast Conference play this Friday and Saturday when it travels to Provo, Utah to face BYU in a three-game series. The teams will play a doubleheader Friday at 4 and 6 p.m. Pacific time with a solo game on Saturday at noon.

The softball team will bring a 19-21 overall record and 3-3 mark in WCC play into the weekend series.

Rowing — Men and Women

The men and women's rowing teams are now gearing up for the end-of-the-year championship events. Both teams will compete in this weekend's WIRA Championships in Sacramento on Lake Natoma. The men are scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday racing while the USD women's team is expected to compete just on Saturday.

All USD Athletics Updates

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Contact:

USD News Center
news@sandiego.edu
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