"They went deep to beat the Ducks" but is the feat something we should always expect?

Ben Bolch, the Los Angeles Times' beat reporter covering the University of Southern California Trojans basketball team emphasized that in its recent weekend victories over both the Oregon State University Beavers and the University of Oregon Ducks, USC's Trojans "sealed (their) third consecutive road sweep of the Oregon Schools..." a notable feat, one worth mentioning. It was at this point, however, that Bolch ventured into foul territory when he continued,

"...a feat that hasn't been achieved since 1966-68." It hasn't? We have just read facts leading to the conclusion that it indeed had. Bolch used the Present Perfect tense in the passive voice when he should have employed the Past Perfect tense in the passive voice. Note: Bolch's use of the passive voice in either tense was an option. Voice in inflected verb forms shows whether the subject is the doer of the action or is the recipient of the action (acted upon). Using passive voice changes only the "feeling" of a sentence not its meaning.

The Past Perfect, also called Pluperfect is an aspect of a verb tense that permits describing two actions in the past, one occurring before the other, but both occurring in the past. In this case, USC had not swept the Oregon schools prior to last weekend's matches. First action in this case is a non action: USC had not swept in many years; second action: USC achieved the sweep victories. (second action put in the simple past tense). Both actions occured in the past, one before the other. In this case, the "one before the other" is in the negative, which makes it a bit confusing.

The present perfect tense describes an action or state begun in the past and leading up to the present. The idea here is of an on-going action or state. USC has played the Oregon Schools for more than a half a century, and it will presumably continue to compete with the Oregon schools in various athletic competitions. Begun in the past and on-going.

Technically, you might say by way of suggestion that a sweep of the Oregon Schools is an on-going state until it occurs, that is, we are always expecting a sweep of the Oregon schools. To communicate this thought would surely offend both Beaver and Duck fans, something you wouldn't wish to do. Winning and sweeping should suffice.