Advancing to the semifinal match of the CCCAA State Championships in Ojai on Saturday, freshman Oleksandr Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) was faced with taking on the defending state champion. Krasnov, seeded #3, was faced with playing Ventura College's Hiro Koyanagi for a chance to advance to the state championship match.

In their only meeting this season, Krasnov was leading Koyanagi, 6-4, 6-5 in their Southern California Team Duals semifinal match when the Falcons clinched the team win. On Saturday, Krasnov started off strong once again, as he fought back from a 2-3 deficit in the first set to post a 7-5 win. He was leading 3-2 in the second set when things started to turn awry. Koyanagi went on to won four of the next five sets to post a 6-4 win and send the match to a third set.

Krasnov, who defeated #5-seeded Sasha Hedberg of Santa Barbara City College, 6-4, 7-6 (4) earlier in the day, continued to struggle to find his stroke in the third set against Koyanagi. He had his serve broken twice to start the third set and trailed, 0-3. Unable to comeback, Krasnov had his singles season come to a close with a 3-6 loss in the third set.

His doubles partner, #7-seeded freshman Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) was defeated 4-7, 6-7 (4) by #10-seeded Javi Callejo of Irvine Valley College in the quarterfinals.

The duo was still active in doubles play as #2-seeds, faced off against #13-seeded Taylor Bryant and Peter Trhac of Palomar College in the quarterfinals late in the day. They were able to hold off their opponents to post a 6-3, 7-5 win, which advances them to the semifinals on Sunday morning. The duo will take on #4-seeded Bruno Figlia and Scott Paz of Irvine Valley College at 8:00 a.m., with the winner playing at 3:30 p.m. for a state championship.