The Cerritos College men's tennis team concluded their regular season with a 6-3 loss to NCAA Division II school Gustavus Adolphus (MN) College on Friday. The setback dropped the team's overall record to 11-10, but three of those losses were against NCAA Division II or Division III colleges. The Falcons, who qualified for the Southern California Regional Team Playoffs, will find out on Sunday where they are seeded and who their opponent will be on Tuesday.

In their loss, Cerritos found themselves down in the team score, 4-2 after singles play and would have needed to sweep all three doubles matches to pull out the victory. They won one of the three, as sophomore Todd Jenkins (Cabrillo HS) and freshman Maurice Grijalva (Gardena HS) earned their second straight win in the #3 position with an 8-5 score. Freshmen Nathan Eshmade (Kings Baptist HS, Australia) and Mathew Espiritu (Long Beach Millikan HS) suffered a rare loss, as they were handed an 8-5 decision.

In singles play, Eshmade improved to 17-1 on the year with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over David Brown in the #1 position. The other win in singles play that kept the team in the match came from Grijalva, who defeated Colin Rieke, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the #6 position. The other four singles matches were sweeps by the Gusties.

SINGLES

Nathan Eshmade (CERR) def. David Brown (GAU), 6-4, 6-3
Mitch Elofson (GAU) def. Mathew Espiritu (CERR), 6-1, 6-4
Sam Hjelm (GAU) def. Todd Jenkins (CERR), 6-1, 6-2
Ben Halverson (GAU) def. Julian Avila (CERR), 6-1, 6-2
Matt Baker (GAU) def. Gianni Jeong (CERR), 6-1, 6-4
Maurice Grijalva (CERR) def. Colin Rieke (GAU), 3-6, 6-2, 6-4

DOUBLES

Bryan Miles/Mitch Elofson (GAU) def. Nathan Eshmade/Mathew Espiritu (CERR), 8-5
David Brown/Logan Peterson (GAU) def. Julian Avila/Gianni Jeong (CERR), 8-3
Todd Jenkins/Maurice Grijalva (CERR) def. Matt Baker/Ben Halverson (GAU), 8-5

Photo by Daryl Peterson