USC is used to having a homefield advantage.
The football team plays at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the loudest venues in the sport.
The basketball team plays at the Galen Center, one of the harder places to visit in the Pac-10.
So when the San Diego State men’s tennis team takes on USC at 1:30 p.m. today at Marks Stadium in Los Angeles, it should come as no surprise that the advantage is just as big.
“It’s everything you would imagine as USC,” head coach Gene Carswell said. “It’s nearly a football environment.”
The crowd is so rowdy that assistant coach Ryan Redondo, a former two-time All-American at SDSU, has seen many players let the fans get the best of them.
“It happens to a lot of people where they listen to it and they get emotional,” Redondo said. “On rare occasions it pumps them up, but it brings them down most of the time.”
Carswell isn’t too concerned with his team reacting to the fans, although he says it often “gets loud and personal.”
“I don’t anticipate anyone engaging the crowd or responding because I am going to tell the team specifically not to,” Carswell said.
Unfortunately, onlookers might be the least of the Aztecs’ concerns. The Trojans (1-0) come into the contest as the No. 6 team in the nation.
But Carswell knows anything is possible for his squad.
“We are going to do our best to go in there and knock them off,” he said. “If you are going to climb a mountain you have got to take it one step at a time.”
No. 50 SDSU (1-0) does have experience beating top competition, however. Reigning Mountain West Conference player of the week junior Bartosz Golas and sophomore Achim Ceban, beat No. 9 UCLA’s Jeremy Drean and Michael Look to win the doubles title at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic on Jan. 20.
Still, the Aztecs have lost at USC each of the past three seasons. But Carswell thinks that his squad, despite having no seniors, is going to turn some heads.
“This is going to be a year where I think we will surprise a lot of people,” he said. “Physically, these guys are strong and able.”
