Complete Brackets
For the second year in a row, the Cerritos College men's tennis doubles team of Sasha Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) and Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) have advanced to the semifinals of the CCCAA State Championships. That semifinal match will take place at 8:00 a.m. at Liberty Park South in Ojai. The duo reached the final four after a convincing 6-1, 6-0 win over #16-seed Gertjan De Wilder and Nicholas Turner of Cypress College in the quarterfinals.
The win put them in position to avenge two of their three losses on the season, as the #1-seeded pair will take on #3-seeded Maximilien Blancaneaux and Vincent Reynaud, also of Cypress. The two doubles teams have faced each other twice already this season, with the Chargers duo winning both, the most recent being an 8-3 decision in the Southern California Regional Team Dual Semifinals a week and a half ago. They also dropped an 8-6 decision in a team duals match.
"In order for Sasha and Nikita to be successful in this meeting, they need to attack earlier and not be on the defensive," said head coach Alvin Kim. "We haven't initiated the attack against them the first two times we've faced them. But they guys were aggressive in the pre-season ITA Tournament and defeated them."
Krasnov and Katsnelson are looking to become the second Falcons doubles team to win a CCCAA doubles championship, as Nathan Eshmade and Amadi Kagoma won the title in 2014.