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Horned Frogs Rout No. 10 USC 7-0; Fomba Notches 100th Career Singles Win - TCU Athletics
FORT WORTH – No. 1 TCU offered a stern reminder as to why it sits atop the college tennis hierarchy on Friday.
GoFrogs: Horned Frogs Rout No. 10 USC 7-0; Fomba Notches 100th Career Singles Win
FORT WORTH – No. 1 TCU offered a stern reminder as to why it sits atop the college tennis hierarchy on Friday.
Less than 48 hours removed from their first defeat in 2023, the Horned Frogs rolled No. 10 USC 7-0 in front of a packed audience on the Bartzen Varsity Courts.
TCU (16-1) picked up its fifth top-10 victory and moved to 9-1 vs. ranked opponents this spring with the rout of the Trojans (10-4). The win was the Horned Frogs' sixth ever and third at home over USC, a 21-time national champion program.
"The boys came back strong and beat USC," head coach David Roditi said. "Big match, big program, lots of history there. The guys responded the way any coach would want them to respond. I'm very proud of them as is our staff. We wanted to see what we were going to have today after losing to Texas, and to come back and beat USC 7-0, couldn't be more proud. The good thing is that we still have things to get better at.
"It all started at the top," Roditi continued. "No. 1 doubles set the tone for the whole team. Then Jake [Fearnley] comes out strong and beats one of the best players in the nation, 6-4 6-0. Hell of an effort by Jake. Awesome crowd and a great atmosphere. Baseball and beach volleyball got their wins, women's tennis had their win. Thank you for the support. Go Frogs."
TCU renewed its doubles dominance to quickly work ahead to a 1-0 lead. Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba defeated the No. 21 Trojan pairing of Bradley Frye and Stefan Dostanic 6-4 on court one. Sander Jong and Jack Pinnington then clinched the doubles point in the third flight by an identical set score vs. Peter Makk and Lodewijk Weststrate.
Fearnleuy and Fomba, the nation's No. 13 doubles team, moved to 9-1 on the season and 5-2 vs. top-25 tandems.
Jong and Pinnington's victory was their fourth together in 2023 and halted a two match skid.
Fomba and Fearnley and Jong and Pinnington won deuce points with their sets tied 3-3. They each assumed 5-3 leads after breaking.
Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives trailed 4-5 to Wojtek Marek and Samuel Rubell as TCU clinched. The pairs alternated games the whole way, with Marek and Rubell serving first.
TCU surrendered just two sets in singles play en route to the sweep. The Horned Frogs won in straight sets on courts one, three, four and five.
Fearnley, No. 21 in the ITA singles rankings, notched his 12th ranked victory of 2022-2023 to snare TCU's second point. He battled Dostanic, the preseason No. 1 player, on the top court. Fearnley edged Dostanic 6-4 in the opening frame, then promptly hung a 6-0 bagel on the All-American.
The junior is now 21-6 in singles play this season.
Gorzny got off the court in straight sets moments after Fearnley's clinch. In a ranked vs. ranked battle, Gorzny, the No. 71 ITA singles player, bested Frye, ranked No. 24, 6-3, 6-2.
The freshman remained unblemished in singles play this spring with the win. He is 11-0, with 10 of the victories coming in straight sets. Cumulatively, Gorzny, who was tabbed No. 5 overall in the ITA newcomer rankings in September, is 29-4 overall and 15-1 in singles action this season.
Jong, No. 43 in the singles rankings, earned the match-clincher. The fifth year senior defeated Weststrate 6-4-6-1.
He is tied with Gorzny for the team-lead in singles wins.
Both Roditi and USC head coach Brett Masi agreed to play out the remaining courts with super tiebreakers in place for any duals that extended to a third set.
Vives rallied from a 6-0 opening set loss on court six to Rubell, forcing a tiebreaker with a 6-4 set two rally. The sophomore doubled up Rubell 10-5 in the tiebreaker, widening TCU's margin of victory to 5-0.
Fomba then further added to his legacy as one of the most decorated players in TCU's Big 12 era. He defeated Marek on court three, 7-6 [7-4], 6-3 to earn his 100th career singles victory in purple and white. Fomba, who sits just 15 combined wins shy of 200 for his career, is the first player in TCU's 11-years of Big 12 membership to achieve the milestone. He ranks eighth in program history in career singles winning percentage (.745) and 11th in career combined victories (185).
Pinnington polished off the clean report card with a rally of his own. The freshman opened up a 4-1 court two lead on Makk, USC's highest-ranked singles player at No. 26, only to drop the opening set 5-7 and fall behind 2-5 in set two. Pinnington promptly won the next five games to induce the tiebreaker. He again fell behind, this time 2-6, but fought back once more to snatch a 10-8 tiebreaker triumph.
Doubles Results
- #13 Jake Fearnley / Luc Fomba (TCU) def. #21 Bradley Frye / Stefan Dostanic (USC): 6-4
- Sebastian Gorzny / Pedro Vives (TCU) vs. Wojtek Marek / Samuel Rubell (USC): 4-5
- Sander Jong / Jack Pinnington (TCU) def. Peter Makk / Lodewijk Weststrate (USC): 6-4.
Singles Results
- #21 Jake Fearnley (TCU) def. #32 Stefan Dostanic (USC): 6-4, 6-0
- Jack Pinnington (TCU) def. #26 Peter Makk (USC): 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 [10-8]
- #16 Luc Fomba (TCU) def. Wojtek Marek (USC): 7-6 [7-4], 6-3
- #43 Sander Jong (TCU) def. Lodewijk Weststrate (USC):
- #71 Sebastian Gorzny (TCU) def. #124 Bradley Frye (USC): 6-3, 6-2
- Pedro Vives (TCU) def. Samuel Rubell (USC): 0-6, 6-4, 1-0 [10-5]
Up Next
Friday's match represented the Horned Frogs' nonconference regular season finale. TCU hosts No. 44 Oklahoma and No. 36 Oklahoma State, respectively, on March 31 and Apr. 2 to kick off Big 12 play. The Horned Frogs then welcome No. 49 Baylor to Fort Worth on Apr. 6 for their final regular season home match. TCU will also host Senior Nigth as a part of its dual with the Bears.
