LOS ANGELES - No. 28 Fresno State fell 4-1 to defending national champion and fifth-ranked USC in the second round of the NCAA Championships on Saturday.
Remi Boutillier started singles off by taking the first set, 6-4, over the Trojans' Matt Kecki. The Bulldog from Briancon, France, kept his focus in the following set, as he closed out the match in straight sets with a 6-2 victory in the second.
Boutillier's win tied the team score at 1-1, after USC won the doubles point. The Trojans would go on to win the next two matches on courts 2 and 3.
Mirko Zapletal pushed the No. 9 singles player in the country, Robert Farah, to a tiebreaker in both sets. But the Trojan senior pulled out both tiebreakers, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), to clinch the match for the defending-national champions.
On courts 5 and 6, Fresno State's Siddharth Alapati and David Ayoun battled back after dropping the first set and each had a chance to win when the team match was clinched.
As a team, the match completed a season that saw the Bulldogs beat 12 ranked teams, advance to ITA National Team Indoors Sweet 16, the WAC Championship match and pick up their first NCAA Tournament victory since 2003.
Fresno State's doubles pair of Rikus de Villiers and Boutillier's season will continue as the duo will compete in the NCAA Doubles Championships on May 26-31 in Athens, Ga.
No. 5 USC 4, No. 28 Fresno State 1
Doubles
1. No. 2 Farah/Johnson (USC) def. No. 23 Boutillier/de Villiers (FS), 8-4
2. Nguyen/Sunding (USC) def. Leiby/Zapletal (FS), 8-2
3. Lucassen/Poldma (USC) vs. Alapati/Veerepalli (FS), DNF
Order of Completion: 2, 1
Singles
1. No. 9 Robert Farah (USC) def. Mirko Zapletal (FS), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)
2. No. 3 Steve Johnson (USC) def. Rikus de Villiers (FS), 7-5, 6-3
3. No. 83 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Tejesvi Veerepalli (FS), 6-3, 6-4
4. Remi Boutillier (FS) def. Matt Kecki (USC), 6-4, 6-2
5. No. 121 Peter Lucassen (USC) vs. David Ayoun (FS), DNF
6. Jason McNaughton (USC) vs. Siddharth Alapati (FS), DNF
Order of Completion: 4, 2, 3, 1