Singled Out

The USC men’s tennis team didn’t need the points from Ryan Moore or Parker Collins Friday--the 11th-ranked Trojans easily defeated UC Irvine, 5-2, at USC’s David Marks Tennis Stadium. But eventually, the Trojans are going to need the Orange County players.

Moore, a sophomore from Servite High, is recovering from a painful lower back injury that sidelined him for eight months. Collins, a freshman from Corona del Mar, is trying to make the transition from high school to college tennis.

Both could use some confidence.

Moore lost a tough 2 1/2-hour match at No. 2 singles to Sunny Hills graduate Chris Chung, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Collins won his seventh consecutive first set but lost his sixth match, 2-6, 7-5, 7-5, to Zoran Korac at No. 6 singles.

In a 5-2 victory over San Diego Tuesday, the story was the same--Moore and Collins suffered the Trojans’ only two losses.

“It’s probably tougher on them than me, because we won the match,” USC Coach Dick Leach said. “‘They’re both having a tough time with their confidence now. But I’m not worried. I know they’ll be back.”

Moore won his seventh consecutive match at No. 1 doubles with Nick Rainey, 8-3 over Oliver Schweizer and Chung, but he fell to 4-3 in singles.

“It’s a struggle right now,” said Moore, ranked 66th nationally last year before his injury. “I’m trying to get it back to where I was pre-injury. Some of the decisions I make, I doubt myself. And in a sport like tennis, that’s death. It has to flow, like it did last year.”

It has been flowing quite well for UCI’s Chung, who played No. 6 last year and is 6-0 at No. 2 singles this season.

“I played about as well as I can today,” said Chung, whose team lost its first match after five victories. “Ryan’s about as fast a guy as I’ve seen. I was just trying to make him run and hang in there.”

Chung admitted the match was Moore’s to lose.

“He was behind all the action,” said Chung, who transferred from Cal last year. “He was hitting the winners and making the errors.”

No error was more important than the one Moore made at match point. Trailing 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker, Moore set up the point perfectly with a strong first serve that moved Chung off the court. But he guided a volley wide and the match was over.

“There are some negative thoughts that creep in,” Moore said. “I’m slowly weeding them out. He’s a scrappy player and he played well. But it’s all in my hands and I didn’t do what I needed to.”

Said Leach: “He’s about 80% of what he was before his back went out. He’s hitting the ball well, but he’s making too many errors, especially on his return of serve.”

Collins, playing an aggressive serve and volley game, didn’t make a lot of unforced errors, but the ones he made were costly. In the third set, Collins missed an easy overhead that would have given him a 5-2 lead.

Later, Collins had two match points with Korac serving at 4-5. But Korac blasted four consecutive first serves to get himself out of trouble.

“I told him afterward, ‘Once you start winning some of these, you’re going to be a monster,’ ” Leach said. “I love the way he’s playing. He’s improving every match.”

Collins had a hand in the doubles point as he teamed with Andrew Park to beat Chris Ma and Stefan Pongratz, 8-4.