Friday, May 18, 2018

NorCal's Staggs loses, but UCLA men advance

   The UCLA men, featuring senior Logan Staggs of Tracy, today reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Championships for the 23rd time in 25 seasons under head coach Billy Martin.
   The No. 2-ranked Bruins defeated No. 15 Michigan 4-2 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The match was delayed by rain and moved from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
   Mattias Siimar beat Staggs, a 5-foot-9 (1.74-meter) left-hander ranked 103rd, 6-2, 6-4 on Court 4 to cut UCLA's lead to 3-1. Staggs did not play doubles.
   The Bruins (29-2) will face crosstown rival USC, ranked No. 10, on Sunday. The Trojans (20-8) topped No. 6 North Carolina 4-2 in Winston-Salem.
   UCLA is 3-0 this year against USC, including a 4-1 victory in the final of the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai, Calif., last month.
   USC leads all schools with 21 NCAA team titles, and UCLA ranks third with 16, one behind Stanford. The Trojans last won the championship in 2014 and the Bruins in 2005.
   The last school besides Virginia or USC to win the NCAA crown was Georgia in 2008. The three-time defending champion Cavaliers lost to Columbia in the second round this year.
   No. 16 Columbia, with two players from Northern California, lost to No. 1 Wake Forest 4-1 today at Wake Forest.
   No. 7 Borna Gojo of the Demon Deacons defeated No. 27 Victor Pham, a junior from Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area, 7-5, 6-3 on Court 1. Huang, a freshman from the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, topped Christian Seraphim, a 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) senior from Germany, 6-1, 6-4 on Court 5.
   In doubles, No. 21 Gojo and Skander Mansouri led No. 47 Pham and Jackie Tang 5-4 when the match was abandoned. Huang did not play doubles.
   Wake Forest (28-2) will play No. 9 Illinois, which eliminated No. 8 Texas Christian 4-1.
   Keenan Mayo of Roseville has signed a letter of intent at Illinois, and Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael has verbally committed to Texas Christian. Roseville and Carmichael are in the Sacramento area.
   Huang and Brooksby train at the JMG Tennis Academy in Sacramento.

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