Cerritos College freshman men's tennis player Nathan Eshmade (Kings Baptist HS, Australia) is the lone singles player remaining at the Southern California Regional Tournament at the Oxnard Tennis Center. Eshmande, seeded #2 in the top half of his bracket, has advanced to the Round of 32, while he and his doubles partner, freshman Mathew Espiritu (Long Beach Millikan HS) have also advanced to the Round of 32. They are also joined by sophomore Todd Jenkins (Cabrillo HS) and freshman Maurice Grijalva (Gardena HS), who won their lone match on Thursday.

In singles action, Eshmade opened with a bye and then recorded a 6-2, 6-1 win over Gabriel Da Costa of Mt. San Jacinto College. He will now play at 8:00 a.m. against Hans Baumstark of Ventura College, who upset #16-seeded Hiro Okuno of Foothill College. The other four Falcon singles players didn't make it past the first day and were all eliminated. Grijalva did post a 6-4, 6-2 win over Fabio Cruz of Palomar College in the Round of 128, but was then defeated by #9-seeded Rihards Feldmania of Foothill College, 6-4, 1-6, 3-6.

As for Espiritu, he was bounced in the first round, 6-0,6-0 by Zack Pittman of Ventura College, while Jenkins lost, 3-6, 6-2, 2-6 to #10-seeded Nikolay Petrov of Foothill College in the Round of 64. Freshman Julian Avila (Paramount HS) opened with a 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 win over Leo Matarazzo of Mt. San Jacinto College, but then had to face top-seeded Sam Bertrand of Fresno City College, and lost, 1-6, 0-6.

Doubles play had #7-seeded Eshmade and Espiritu receiving a bye in the first round and then recorded a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Victor Valley College's Adrian Beltre and Jr. Villiaon. That sets them up with a 12:30 p.m. match on Friday against #10-seeded Feldmania and Petrov. Seeded #15, Jenkins and Grijalva won their first match, 6-1, 6-2 over David Flores and Matarazzo of Mt. San Jacinto College, which now pits them against #2-seeded Andrew Amor and Adam Duong of American River College.

Getting eliminated in doubles play were Avila and freshman Gianni Jeong (Cerritos HS), who started the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Demitri Fellines and Abishek Naduri of Cosumnes River College and ended with a 3-6, 2-6 loss to #2-seeded Danny Garcia and Jordan Grobatie of Riverside City College.

Photo by Daryl Peterson