The final score may not be indicative of how close the match was, but the 5-2 win over Ventura College on Tuesday by the Cerritos College men's tennis team advances them to the SoCal Team Championships. The Falcons (24-3), seeded #2, will now travel to Irvine Valley College (19-2) on Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. match with the winner advancing to the CCCAA State Championship match in Ventura on April 20. The #1-seeded Lasers handed Cerritos their only community College loss, an 8-1 decision back on February 4.

The day started with doubles and the Falcons found themselves trailing, 2-1 in the team score. The top doubles match was a back and forth battle with freshman Oleksandr Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) and Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) suffering a 9-7 setback at the hands of Hironori Koyanagi and Corey Karen. In singles action, the match was coming down to the wire and both Krasnov and Katsnelson were leading in their respective matches. Krasnov was holding a 6-4, 6-5 lead against Koryanagi, the defending state singles champion, while Katsnelson was extended to a third set against Karen, but was leading, 6-3, 6-7, 2-0.

The brightest spot to the lineup was sophomore captain Agustin Lombardi (E.S.D.S., Argentina), who was feared to have been lost to an injury. But he played through it and teamed with sophomore Mark Antoniuk (W. 124 School, Russia) in a close 8-6 doubles loss. He also clinched the team win when he fought back after losing the first set to Guenter Newman and earned a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory to the delight of his team.

Cerritos also posted three solid straight set wins at the bottom of the ladder to help lock down the win. Freshman Aleks Trifunovic (Katrinelunds Gymnasium, Sweden) posted a 6-2, 6-2 win in the #4 spot, while freshman James Zhang (Shenzhen Luohu Foreign Language School, China) earned a 6-0, 6-1. The two also accounted for the team's lone doubles win, an 8-2 score. Freshman Eliot Dota (pictured, Paris, France) stepped up to defeat Michael Burr, 6-2, 6-3.

SINGLES

Oleksandr Krasnov (CERR) led Hironori Koyanagi (VC), 6-4, 6-5
Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) led Corey Karen (VC), 6-3, 6-7 (7), 2-0
Agustin Lombardi (CERR) def. Guenter Newman (VC), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
Aleks Trifunovic (CERR) def. Diego Rodrigues (VC), 6-2, 6-2
James Zhang (CERR) def. Evan Gazic (VC), 6-0, 6-1
Eliot Dota (CERR) def. Michael Burr (VC), 6-2, 6-3

DOUBLES

Corey Karen/Hironori Koyanagi (VC) def. Oleksandr Krasnov/Nikita Katsnelson (CERR), 9-7
Aleks Trifunovic/James Zhang (CERR) def. Guenter Newman/Michael Burr (VC), 8-2
Leonardo Santos/Diego Rodrigues (VC) def. Agustin Lombardi/Mark Antoniuk (CERR), 8-6

Photos by Daryl Peterson