May 16, 2002

The pendulum has swung in the Bruins' favor heading into the home stretch in the battle for the first annual Lexus Gauntlet. After a 4-1 victory over USC in the third round of the NCAA women's tennis tournament on May 16, UCLA has recaptured the lead in the season-long all-sports competition, 55-52.5.

The Bruins and Trojans compete against each other in 18 sports. Five points are awarded to the winner of the each sport's season series or, for those sports that don't meet head-to-head, the team that places higher in the conference championship (10 points are awarded in football, men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball). The Lexus Gauntlet trophy winner needs 57.5 points to clinch the victory outright. If both schools end up with 55 points, a tiebreaker is implemented.

UCLA's victory in women's tennis at the NCAA Championships gave the Bruins a final season series victory, 2-1. The Bruins gained 2.5 points for Thursday's victory, while USC forfeited the 2.5 points it collected with the regular season split.

UCLA would clinch the Lexus Gauntlet trophy in the following scenario. First, the Bruins would either have to beat USC in the NCAA men's tennis championship match on May 21 at Texas A&M (but both squads would have to beat three opponents to even reach the final) or not face the Trojans at all in the tournament. Then the Bruin baseball team would need to win just one of the remaining three games in the upcoming May 24-26 series at UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium. Although two baseball wins would give USC the additional 2.5 points allotted to that sport, the schools would finish the year tied with 55 points apiece. UCLA would then win the first tiebreaker based on a 16-15 advantage in regular season all-sport meetings.

Two things would have to happen for USC to capture the Lexus Gauntlet trophy. In the first scenario, USC would have to beat UCLA in the NCAA men's tennis championship match, and then the Trojans would have to win just one of the three baseball games in the upcoming May 24-25-26 USC-UCLA baseball series at UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium. Troy would recapture 2.5 points in men's tennis while UCLA forfeited 2.5 (currently, UCLA owns all 5 men's tennis points after beating USC in twice in three regular season matches) and USC would capture the remaining 2.5 baseball points (USC won three earlier-season baseball games against the Bruins). That would give the Trojans the necessary 57.5 points.

In the second scenario, in which either UCLA beats USC in men's tennis or the teams don't meet again in the sport, then USC would need to sweep the three-game baseball series to capture the Lexus Gauntlet trophy. The sweep not only would give Troy 2.5 more points to force a 55-55 tie, but would give USC the tiebreaker since it would have a 16-15 edge in head-to-head regular season meetings in all sports. If USC wins just two of the three baseball games in this scenario, UCLA would hold the tiebreaker edge and would win the trophy.

The Southern California Lexus Dealer Association is the title sponsor of every USC-UCLA athletic competition. This is the first time the two universities have partnered with a corporate entity for complete rivalry sponsorship. In the fall of 2001, the schools signed a 4-year contract of undisclosed terms with Lexus, America's best-selling luxury automotive manufacturer for two years in a row.

Up-to-date releases and point standings can be found at www.gauntlettrophy.com.