Photo by Eric Parsons

USC's Kaes Van't Hof puts all his energy into this forehand during his semifinal victory over fellow Trojan Gary Sacks in the PAc-10 singles championship at The 108th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament at Libbey Park on Saturday.

Photo by Eric Parsons

USC's Amanda Fink hits a backhand during her Pac-10 women's singles match against Arizona State's Nadia Abdala at Libbey Park on Saturday.

Saturday's semifinals in the Pac-10 Men's Singles championship of The Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament were like the Civil War. Instead of brother facing off against brother on the battlefield, it was four USC teammates battling on a tennis court to decide which two would earn the right to meet in today's final at 12:30 p.m. at Libbey Park.

In the early match, No. 2 seed Kaes Van't Hof defeated former Calabasas High standout Gary Sacks 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2). In the afternoon match, No. 1 seed Robert Farah needed just two sets to defeat freshman Jaak Poldma 6-2, 6-4.

Van't Hof, who reached the finals at The Ojai three times as a junior player and never won, says playing against a teammate is no fun.

"It's always a struggle when you are playing your friends," Van't Hof said. "There is so much tension. You don't know what to do. You don't know how fired up to get; how emotional to get."

Van't Hof used an unusual incident to get himself fired up on Saturday. Down 4-5 and deuce, Van't Hof tossed the ball to serve at the same time a ball came whizzing over his head from the adjacent court. The ball was courtesy of Men's Open player Brian Wilson, who had just lost a key point and in his frustration swatted a ball into the trees beyond Court 2.

The extra ball caused Van't Hof to flinch and miss his first serve; unfortunately both the referee and Sacks were unaware of what took place. After screaming at Wilson, Van't Hof went on to lose the game and the set.

Instead of stewing about it, he chose to use the incident to focus his attention.

"I actually started playing that instead of my opponent," Van't Hof said. "I stopped thinking about Gary and started thinking maybe I was playing the guy on the other court. You have to get motivation somehow and that was mine."

Farah said it's especially difficult playing a teammate when there's a close call that you're forced to make that goes against your friend.

"You don't want to call it against your teammate, but you still want to win the match," Farah said. "You don't want to just give him the points either. It's hard to find a balance."

Farah and Poldma practice against each other every day in practice, so Farah said there were no surprises on Saturday.

"We know where we are going to hit shots, so shots that might be winners in others matches, I will get to and he will do the same," Farah said. "The first set he didn't play well. He was missing a lot of shots.

"The second set was tougher. I had to fight more for my games. He missed a lot the first set. It was not a pretty match at the end. There were a lot of mistakes."

Farah and Van't Hof are doubles partners and they will play for a title late this afternoon. But before that, they will battle for the singles championship.

Farah said he would much rather be facing a Bruin or a Bear in the final.

"It's going to be a really tough match," Farah said. "I know he's going to bring it. He's going to serve as hard as he can. Whatever the result, I will be happy with it."

The Trojans will also be represented in the Pac-10 Women's Singles final. USC junior Amanda Fink, who hails from Calabasas, will play UCLA's Riza Zalameda. Fink defeated Arizona State's Nadia Abdala in her semifinal 6-3, 6-2, while Zalameda beat Cal's Claire Ilcinkas 6-4, 7-6 (6). Fink will also be in the Pac-10 Women's Doubles final with partner Gabriela Niculescu.

It marks the first time in tournament history a school will have players competing in both the men's and women's finals in the same year.

Fink's match lasted less than 90 minutes, something she was grateful for since temperatures soared above 90 degrees in Ojai.

"I'm not sure how long the match was, but it felt long," Fink said. "I'm so glad to win because she is so good. She's had some really good wins this year and she has one of the best serves in the country."

Fink was able to nullify Abdala's big serve by coming up and taking the serve a little earlier.

This will be the second appearance in the final for Fink, who accomplished the feat as a freshman, losing to Suzie Fodor 7-6(2), 6-3.

"As a freshman it was all new to me," Fink said. "I had played in the Women's Open a few times (reaching the finals in '05, but retiring with an injury), but college is a whole different level of accomplishment.

"It was a really neat experience. I think having that experience under my belt and knowing what it's like will help me now."

— For more information on other matches and divisions go to http://www.ojaitourney.org.