Tennis DIVISION I MEN’S Highlights Southern California wins third national title in a row; Nguyen clinches championship with thrilling three-set victory: Daniel Nguyen made a shot to earn a break point, fl ipped off his hat, started taking off his shirt and then danced around the court until his Southern California teammates could reach him and pile on. Nguyen downed Sanam Singh, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4, to give Southern California a 4-3 victory against Virginia for the Trojans’ third consecutive NCAA men’s tennis title May 24. They became the fi rst three-time defending champions since Stanford won four in a row from 1995 to 1998. “I remember watching Prakash Amritraj take off his shirt when we won the 2002 title,” Nguyen said. “I thought about doing it and then thought, ‘nah, let’s not do it.’” Seconds later he was tackled to the ground amid a wave of Trojans. “It was an incredible match,” Southern California coach Peter Smith said. “It all came down to the last match. How many teams win three in a row? These boys did it. This coaching staff did it.” Nguyen’s fi nal game featured a solid return game. He dived to save one shot and ended up getting the point. That led to the chip shot from the net that landed a few yards from Singh. “It was an amazing atmosphere,” Nguyen said. “It was unbelievably loud and it was hard to focus. I just seized the moment and took advantage.” Of his second point in the last game, he said: “I just saw the ball and ran as fast as I could and dove for it. It went in, luckily, and it was a real shock.” Singh wasn’t expecting a return. “That was probably the best shot he has come up with,” he said. “It caught me off guard. You have to give him some credit for coming up with big shots.” The Trojans (27-2) won the doubles point. The key match was senior Steve Johnson and freshman Emilio Gomez at No. 2 doubles. “It was just so surreal,” said Johnson, the nation’s top-ranked college player. “I felt this year like it was my team and the guys put in so much hard work to prove we could come here and show how good we are. We fought hard and we’ll be looking for more next year.” The Trojans, undefeated in their past six appearances in the fi nal, knocked Virginia out of the tournament for the third straight year. They beat the Cavaliers in last year’s semifi nals and in the quarterfi nals in 2009. Virginia, the top seed in each of the past four tournaments, reached the fi nal for the fi rst time in school history. “Southern California played a great match and really took it to us in doubles,” Virginia coach Brian Boland said. “Somebody had to lose a tough match. That’s just part of sports. It was a privilege to play for the national championship.” Gomez beat freshman Justin Shane, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 5 singles to make it 2-0. Southern California won the fi rst set in fi ve of the six singles matches, but Virginia (34-1) came back to win the second set in three of those matches. Johnson gave the Trojans a 3-0 lead with a, 7-6 (2), 6-3, victory over Michael Shabaz at No. 1 singles. Alex Domijan gave the Cavaliers their fi rst point with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jaak Poldma at No. 2 singles and Julen Uriguen beat Peter Lucassen, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, at No. 6 singles to make it 3-2. Jarmere Jenkins rallied to win his match at No. 4 singles, beating Ray Sarmiento, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. After helping the Trojans to the team championship, Johnson pocketed a title of his own in the singles competition. In the singles championship match, Johnson carried a powerful win streak into a rematch against one of just three players to have beaten him this season. It took another three-setter to get it done, but by the end of it, Johnson’s winning momen- tum proved unstoppable, as he claimed his 35th consecutive singles win and the 2011 NCAA singles crown in beating Tennessee’s Rhyne Williams, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Johnson becomes the fi rst Trojan ever to win both the NCAA team championship and singles title in the same year since the dual-match format was used to determine national team champions. Southern California’s Joaquin Loyo-Mayo was a double winner in 1969, but titles before 1977 were not generated in the same format as the NCAA team dual-match brackets followed by individual tournament play. In his domination of the team and singles draws this season, Johnson becomes the 12th Trojan to win an NCAA singles crown. The last Southern California player to win the NCAA singles title was Cecil Mamiit in 1996, and the last time any player captured both the team and singles titles was in 2004. Johnson’s historic run to this year’s NCAA titles gained momentum with a surge through Pac-10 play, where Southern California won the conference championship just before John- son claimed both the Pac-10 singles and doubles titles. The Pac-10 Player of the Year would pick up the NCAA team tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award before digging into singles play. By that time, Johnson’s win streak was also ballooning along with his award list. Fast forward to the singles title match – Johnson’s fourth of the month. As the top seed, Johnson was up against Williams for some redemption on a grander scale even than the ITA national indoor championship match that Williams had edged Johnson out of back in November. The No. 4 seed in the tournament, Williams came out fi ring on all cylinders, and put Johnson on the ropes by breaking the big-hitting Trojan in the fi rst game of the match. The players would hold serve the rest of the way, as Williams fought off Johnson’s hopes of breaking even to win the fi rst set. Johnson hardly faltered the rest of the way, however, getting ahead 3-0 in both remaining sets, and pounding out an extra break of Williams in the third to bring home the match. 2 DIVISION I MEN’S TENNIS—TEAM RESULTS San Diego 4, BYU 0 QUARTERFINALS 2011 Team Results Southern California 4, Sacramento St. 0 May 21 at Stanford Virginia 4, Stanford 3 SECOND ROUND Ohio St. 4, Baylor 2 FIRST ROUND May 14-15 Georgia 4, Tennessee 3 May 13-14 Virginia 4, Wake Forest 1 Southern California 4, Kentucky 1 Virginia 4, Sacred Heart 0 Illinois 4, North Carolina 1 Wake Forest 4, VCU 0 Stanford 4, Washington 1 SEMIFINALS North Carolina 4, Eastern Ky. 0 Texas A&M 4, LSU 0 Illinois 4, Drake 0 Ohio St. 4, Notre Dame 0 May 23 at Stanford Stanford 4, Army 0 Virginia 4, Ohio St. 2 Tulsa 4, Texas 3 Southern California 4, Georgia 0 Washington 4, Cal Poly 0 Baylor 4, Texas Tech 1 Texas A&M 4, Alcorn St. 0 UCLA 4, Ole Miss 3 CHAMPIONSHIP LSU 4, Indiana 3 Duke 4, Maryland 0 Ohio St. 4, Ball St. 0 Georgia 4, Auburn 0 May 24 at Stanford Notre Dame 4, East Tenn. St. 3 California 4, Fresno St. 3 Southern California 4, Virginia 3 Texas 4, UMKC 0 Tennessee 4, Virginia Tech 0 Doubles: No. 1—Drew Courtney-Michael Shabaz, Tulsa 4, Oklahoma 2 Kentucky 4, Louisville 3 Virginia, vs. JT Sundling-Jaak Poldma, Southern Baylor 4, A&M-Corpus Christi 1 Florida 4, Miami (FL) 0 California, 8-7, unfinished; No. 2—Emilio Gomez-Steve Texas Tech 4, Rice 3 Georgia Tech 4, Mississippi St. 1 Johnson, Southern California, def. Jarmere Jenkins- UCLA 4, Binghamton 0 Southern California 4, San Diego 0 Julen Uriguen, Virginia, 8-2; No. 3—Daniel Nguyen-Ray Ole Miss 4, UC Irvine 1 Sarmiento, Southern California, def. Alex Domijan- Maryland 4, Michigan 2 ROUND OF 16 Sanam Singh, Virginia, 8-4. Duke 4, George Washington 0 Singles: No. 1—Johnson, Southern California, def. Auburn 4, UNC Wilmington 1 May 19 at Stanford Shabaz, Virginia, 7-6(2), 6-3; No. 2—Domijan, Virginia, Georgia 4, Samford 0 Virginia 4, Illinois 0 def. Poldma, Southern California, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; No. Stanford 4, Texas A&M 2 3—Nguyen, Southern California, def. Singh, Virginia, Fresno St. 4, Minnesota 3 Ohio St. 4, Tulsa 0 California 4, Marist 0 7-5, 0-6, 6-4; No. 4—Jenkins, Virginia, def. Sarmiento, Baylor 4, UCLA 3 Southern California, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; No. 5—Gomez, Virginia Tech 5, Vanderbilt 2 Georgia 4, Duke 1 Tennessee 4, Radford 0 Southern California, def. Justin Shane, Virginia, 6-0, Louisville 4, Cornell 0 Tennessee 4, California 2 6-3; No. 6—Uriguen, Virginia, def. Peter Lucassen, Kentucky 4, Florida 2 Southern California, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Kentucky 4, Cleveland St. 0 Southern California 4, Georgia Tech 0 Miami (FL) 4, Nebraska 3 Florida 4, South Carolina St. 0 Mississippi St. 4, Florida St. 0 Georgia Tech 4, Middle Tenn. 0 Thiemann, Ole Miss, def. Chris Kearney, UC Irvine, 7-6(4), Quarterfinals – May 28 2011 Individual Results 6-1; Eric Quigley, Kentucky, def. Mehdi Bouras, UNLV, Johnson, Southern California, def.