On Tuesday, the Cerritos College men's tennis team dispatched visiting Riverside City College, 5-1 in the first round of the Southern California Regional Team Playoffs. The win by the #2-seeded Falcons (23-3) advances them to the semifinals next Tuesday, where they will host #3-seeded Ventura College, who defeated Orange Coast College. Last Tuesday, the Falcons defeated Ventura, 7-2 in a non-conference match. Prior to the match with the Pirates, Cerritos will host the South Coast Conference Tournament, which will take place this Thursday through Saturday.

Opening with doubles play, the Falcons picked up a pair of wins, as freshmen Oleksandr Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) and Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) recorded an 8-2 win in the #1 match. The two also posted straight set singles victories to help Cerritos with the team win. Krasnov defeated Antoine Viosin, 6-1, 6-2 in the #1 singles match, while Katsnelson handed Sam Paque a 6-1, 6-0 loss in the #2 spot on the ladder.

Playing without the services of #3 singles player and captain Agustin Lombardi (E.S.D.S., Argentina) due to an injury, the rest of the ladder moved up one position. Freshman Eliot Dota (Paris, France) stepped into the #5 position and earned a 6-0, 6-0 win, which would account for the fifth team point needed to earn the win in the post-season. Freshmen James Zhang (Shenzhen Luohu Foreign Language School, China) and Aleks Trifunovic (Katrinelunds Gymnasium, Sweden), along with sophomore Edgar Munoz (Paramount HS) won the first set of their matches and were leading in the second set when the match concluded.

With the injury to Lombardi, Dota teamed with sophomore Mark Antoniuk (W. 124 School, Russia) in doubles action for the first time and they posted an 8-4 win.

SINGLES

Oleksandr Krasnov (CERR) def. Antoine Voisin (RCC), 6-1, 6-2
Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) def. Sam Paque (RCC), 6-1, 6-0
Aleks Trifunovic (CERR) led Victor Iove (RCC), 6-3, 5-0
James Zhang (CERR) led Stanislas Bedrune (RCC), 6-4, 3-0
Eliot Dota (CERR) def. Mathieu Tabanon (RCC), 6-0, 6-0
Edgar Munoz (CERR) led Trent Harris (RCC), 7-5, 0-0

DOUBLES

Oleksandr Krasnov/Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) def. Antoine Voisin/Sam Paque (RCC), 8-2
Victor Iove/Stanislas Bedrune (RCC) def. Aleks Trifunovic/James Zhang (CERR), 8-6
Eliot Dota/Mark Antoniuk (CERR) def. Mathieu Tabanon/Trent Harris (RCC), 8-4

Photos by Daryl Peterson