USD Weekly Update | 3-26-18
Women’s Tennis
USD Women’s Tennis was swept 4-0 by Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon. The Toreros were over matched by the Zags, who won the doubles point and continued their dominance in the singles matches. Three of the singles matches did not finish. Gonzaga won the first two singles matches 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1. They finished off the Toreros with a 6-0, 6-2 victory. USD is now 7-7 overall with a 1-2 record in WCC play and will look to bounce back this Wednesday vs San Jose State.
Men’s Tennis
Men’s Tennis went 2-0 this past weekend with dominating victories over Denver and Portland. Saturday’s win vs Denver was 6-1 victory for the Toreros, which snapped a three game losing streak for USD. The Toreros got off to a flying start, winning the doubles point and the first singles point. Denver won the next point to cut the lead to 2-1 but the Toreros responded by taking total control of the match.
On Sunday, USD continued its excellent play by sweeping the Portland Pilots 4-0. The Toreros once again took control early by winning the doubles point and never looked back. The victory brought the Toreros record to 8-7 overall and 2-0 in conference. USD will look to continue their impressive play this Saturday vs the BYU Cougars.
Softball
USD Softball took on UC Riverside this past weekend, sweeping the Saturday double-header before falling on Sunday. In the first game on Saturday, USD managed just four hits but made the most of them. Kailey Hill hit a two-run home run in the first inning and Sara Silveyra added a three-run homer in the third. Starter Halle Kyler, hit an RBI-single in her first collegiate at-bat to give the Toreros its sixth run in the fourth inning. Kyler pitched a strong effort, allowing four runs on nine hits and six strikeouts in six innings.
In the second game of the double-header, Hannah Boos pitched her fourth complete game of the season in the Toreros 8-1 victory. USD jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning and made it 5-1 with a pair of runs in the fifth. A three-run sixth inning extended the Toreros lead and Boos contined her excelent pitching to pick up the win.
USD was unable to complete the three game sweep on Sunday however, losing to the Highlanders on a walk off in the bottom of the seventh. The Toreros left eight runners stranded on base and missed multiple opportunities to blow the game open. The loss puts USD’s record at 19-15 with the Toreros heading down I-8 to take on San Diego State on Tuesday.
Baseball
USD baseball was in Stockton this past weekend for a three game series with the Pacific Tigers. The Toreros took the first game of the series 7-4, aided by Kevin Collard's 3-run home run to right field in the 8th inning. Starter Paul Richan picked up the win, going 7+ solid innings, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits and nine strikeouts. In USD's 3-run 8th inning, Jay Schuyler singled to open the inning. He moved to second on a groundout and advanced to third on a single. Collard's came up to the plate and delivered a line drive home run over the right field fence.
The Toreros continued their strong play on Saturday with a 9-0 win over the Tigers. Starter Chris Murphy turned in another gem in pitching as Murphy scattered seven hits while totaling 11 strikeouts over 7.2 innings of work. This outing follows Murphy's 14 strikeout performance last week in USD's 8-2 win over Santa Clara. He was backed by a Toreros offense that picked up 12 hits. Murphy’s efforts were good enough to earn him WCC pitcher of the week honors. USD was defeated in the final game of the series however. The Tigers offense proved to be too much for the Toreros pitching as Pacific came away with a 9-7 win. USD now sits at 12-12 and 3-3 in WCC play and will now head to Palo Alto and then San Francisco for games against Stanford and USF.
Men's Basketball
USD Men's Basketball’s season came to an end on Wednesday with an 86-75 loss vs Northern Colorado in the CIT Quarterfinals. The Toreros jumped out to an early 18-9 lead but the Bears responded to cut the lead to 18-16. Each time USD made a bit of a run in the first half, Northern Colorado responded with a run of their own and the first half ended with the Toreros up 43-38.
The Bears would take a 50-48 lead in the second half and extended that lead to 60-51 with just over 12 minutes to play. Two Isaiah Pineiro free throws and an Isaiah Wright lay up pulled USD to within five at 60-55, but back-to-back buckets from Northern Colorado pushed the Bears lead to 66-57. The Toreros would cut into the lead once more but the Bears once again responded and held off USD to advance to the CIT Semifinals.
Pineiro led the team with 25 points and Wright added 23 of his own. The Toreros finished the season at 20-14, only the 4th 20 win season in program history and its first since the 2007-08 season.
