By the end of the South Coast Conference men's tennis tournament, Cerritos College came though with both the singles and doubles champions. The Falcons, who won the team championship, also qualified all six of their singles players and all three of their doubles teams for the CCCAA State Championships, which will take place in Ojai later in the month. On Tuesday, the team will travel to College of the Desert for their Southern California Team Playoff semifinal match.
Day 1: On the first day, the Falcons won all three of their doubles matches and occupy three of the four teams in the semi-finals. The top team of sophomore Amadi Kagoma (Malezi School, Kenya) and Antonio Torrebella-Clark (Cypress HS) posted an 8-4 win over Erik Martinez and Kenneth Simmons to reach the semi-finals.
With wins by the other two Cerritos doubles teams, they are now forced to square off against each other. Mathieu David (Nimes, France) and Milos Zoric (Gimnazjia Indijia, Serbia) posted an 8-6 win in their first match and will now take on Mark Antoniuk (W. 124 School, Russia) and Agustin Lombardi (E.S.O.S., Argentina), 8-5 winners.
The top four doubles teams in the conference advance to the CCCAA State Championships, which means the Falcons will be sending all three of their pairings, while the top eight singles players qualify.
Day 2: The only losses the Falcons suffered in singles play came against teammates, while the top doubles team was upset in the semifinals. Kagoma defeated Antoniuk (6-4, 7-5) and then advanced to the finals when David was forced to retire in the second set due to an injury. David reached the semifinals with a tough three-set win over El Camino's Whitney Reed, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the other half of the bracket, Ayesiga upset the team's #2 singles player, Torrebella-Clark, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, while Lombardi had to come back after losing the first set to Mt. SAC's Erik Martinez, 1-6, 7-6, 6-0. In the semifinals, Lombardi pulled out a 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 win over Ayesiga to earn the right to face Kagoma. In doubles action, Kagoma and Torrebella-Clark were defeated 8-6 in the semifinals, while Antoniuk and Lombardi escaped with a 9-7 win over David and Zoric.
Day 3: Kagoma finished off the singles title with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Lombardi, who was looking to become the second straight Cerritos player to win both championships. Lombardi and Antoniuk captured the doubles championship with their 8-2 win over Mt. SAC's Kimlong Phan and Aron Hayes. Last season, Nathan Eshmade won both the conference singles and doubles titles.
Photos by Daryl Peterson
