No. 66 Northwestern entered its West Coast road trip with some momentum after two straight wins, but it failed to capture a single point over the weekend. 

The Wildcats (15-12, 3-9 Big Ten) were once again without sophomore Carter Pate, who has not played since April 3 due to an injury. NU opened the weekend with a 4-0 loss to No. 28 USC on Friday, capturing just one set en route to the defeat. 

Junior Greyson Casey and senior Chad Miller began doubles play with a 6-0 win, but the ’Cats’ other doubles pairings were unable to follow suit against the Trojans (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten). Juniors Ethan Schiffman and Cyrus Mahjoob fell 4-6 to the No. 80-ranked duo of Nate Trouve and Max Exsted before freshman Cooper Han and junior Owen Megargee lost 5-7 to Connor Church and Branko Djuric. 

NU didn’t fare much better in singles. Casey fell 1-6, 2-6 to Trouve, ranked No. 64 in singles. Miller lost 1-6, 0-6 to Jack McCarthy and freshman Jacob Golden rounded out the match with a 2-6, 1-6 loss to Niels Hoffmann. 

The ’Cats found little success against UCLA on Sunday as they failed to win one set across all of the matches. 

The Bruins (14-6, 8-3 Big Ten) nabbed the doubles point in relatively uncontested fashion. Han and Megargee fell 2-6 to Gianluca Ballotta and Emon van Loben Sels, while Casey and Miller took a 4-6 loss to Bengt Reinhard and Aadarsh Tripathi. 

UCLA took the first singles point after Schiffman was forced to retire from his match. Mahjoob fell 2-6, 2-6 to No. 24-ranked van Loben Sels, and with the game on the line, Miller lost 0-6, 3-6 to Cassius Chinlund. 

NU looks to bounce back in its final match of the regular season against Illinois on Saturday. 

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