The Cerritos College men's tennis team has advanced five singles players and a pair of doubles teams past the first day of the South Coast Conference Tournament, which took place on the Falcon Tennis Courts on Thursday. Next Thursday and Friday Cerritos will host the final rounds of the tournament, which will determine who advances to the Southern California Regional Tournament.

Heading the list of players who have advanced is #1-seeded Nathan Eshmade (Kings Baptist HS, Australia), who defeated El Camino College's Eric Sanders, 6-0, 6-1 in his lone match of the day after receiving a bye in the first round. He will now be facing teammate Julian Avila (Paramount HS) in the quarterfinals next Thursday at 1:00 p.m. after a 6-3, 6-3 win by Avila over Cameron Webber of Mt. San Antonio College.

The next quarterfinal pairing will also see a pair of Falcons squaring off against each other after #6-seeded Mathew Espiritu (Long Beach Millikan HS) recorded a 6-4, 6-1 win against Mt. SAC's Devin Julian-Rohman. The win coupled by a pair of wins from freshman Maurice Girjalva (Gardena HS) have set up the showdown. Grijalva opened the day with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Kenny Simmons of Mt. SAC, while he followed that with a stunning 6-4, 6-4 upset win against a rested Anthony Ya of El Camino, who was the #5-seeded player.

Sophomore Todd Jenkins (Cabrillo HS), the #4-seed, easily defeated Collin Matthews of El Camino, 6-1, 6-1 and will take on #3-seeded Andrew Lieu of El Camino next Thursday. The lone Cerritos singles player to lose was freshman Gianni Jeong (Cerritos HS), who was defeated by #2-seeded Marcelo Bautista of Mt. SAC.

Doubles play saw top-seeded Eshmade and Espiritu post an 8-3 win against Alan Tong and Eric Sanders of El Camino and puts them in a semi-final match against #4-seeded Webber and Simmons at 3:30 p.m. next Friday. The Mt. SAC pair eliminated Avila and Jeong, 8-3 in their match. The pairing of #3-seeded Jenkins and Grijalva have also reached the semi-finals after their 8-1 win, which will put them up against #3-seeded Bautista and Lieu.

Photo by Daryl Peterson