Final Stats

Final Results

FORT WORTH, Texas - San Diego earned one of its most impressive victories in program history in dramatic fashion Saturday, defeating No. 10 TCU, 4-3.

The Toreros (2-0) faced significant early deficits in a majority of its doubles and singles matches but rallied to take down its first top-10 opponent since at least 2000. It is the highest-ranked opponent USD has beaten since No. 11 Texas, 4-1, on March 9, 2012.

"It was a brave effort from this young group," said head coach Ryan Keckley who earned the first top-10 victory of his USD coaching career. "This team displayed so much resiliency after dropping the first six singles sets. They remained calm and had the poise and tenacity to claw their way back match by match."

Dogpiles are rare in January but the Toreros enjoyed one anyway after Alexandros Araouzos earned the match-clinching point in the No. 5 position against the Horned Frogs' (2-1) Reese Stalder, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

"I could not be happier for Alex," said Keckley. "He showed such heart as the leader of this team. It is not easy to drop two team match points at 5-3 in the third and come back to win in a breaker to clinch the match. He has grown a lot as an athlete over the past three years and it showed today."

The Toreros advance to Sunday's championship match against No. 24 Duke at 11 a.m. PT. A free live stream will be available.

The Toreros got off to a tough start as TCU's Stalder and Bertus Kruger made quick work of the USD's David Norfeldt and Pratt Keerasuntonpong, 6-1.

The other two Toreros teams dealt with early deficits as well but Gui Osorio and Nico Borter rallied to a 7-5 decision, while August Holmgren and Joel Gamerov battled to a 7-6 (8-6) victory. The comeback performances gave the Toreros a 1-0 lead going into singles play.

"After having some early opportunities in doubles and not closing it out, we stayed the course and played our brand of doubles," said Keckley. "Credit to both the No. 1 and No. 2 teams who have come a long way from this past semester. They stayed with it and stuck to the fundamentals when things got tight."

TCU won the first three matches of singles play to take a 3-1 lead. Then the momentum shifted back to the Toreros after Gamerov earned a victory due to a retirement by No. 23 Alastair Gray in the third set. Gray won the first set, 7-5, and Gamerov responded with a 6-2 decision in the second set before Gray retired.

It is the first victory against a top-25 opponent in Gamerov's collegiate career.

Norfeldt dropped the first set, 6-3, to Bertus Kruger but bounced back with convincing, 6-4 and 6-2, decisions to knot the score at, 3-3.

Araouzos provided the finishing touches to give the Toreros a top-10 victory.

* USD record rankings available from 2001-18