On Tuesday, the Cerritos College men's tennis team opened the Southern California Regional Team Playoffs with a 5-0 win over visiting Orange Coast College. The Falcons (27-1), seeded #2 and winners of their last 18 matches, will now host #3-seeded Cypress College at 2:00 p.m. next Tuesday in the Southern California semi-finals. Back on March 24, Cerritos defeated the Chargers, 6-3 on the road.

Cerritos took a quick lead against the #7-seeded Pirates (13-7) with a sweep of doubles play. The sophomore tandem of Sasha Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) and Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) earned an 8-3 win, while sophomores Aleks Trifunovic (Katrinelund Gymnasiet, Sweden) and James Zhang (Shenzhen Luohu Foreign Language School, China) recorded an 8-2 victory. Teaming with freshman Kwang-Eun Lee (Sunny Hills HS) in the second doubles pairing, freshman Marcos Paulo Silvestre (Colégio Tiradentes, Brazil) shut out Kendall Harris and Jaime Sabate, 8-0.

In singles play, the Falcons won a pair of matches quickly to finish their day with a 5-0 win. Trifunovic earned a 6-2, 6-2 win in the #3 position, while Krasnov clinched the match with his 6-4, 6-1 victory in the 1 singles match. Zhang was also leading, 6-2, 5-0 when the match was called.

SINGLES
Sasha Krasnov (CERR) def. Brendan Baar (OCC), 6-4, 6-1
Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) vs. Quoc Tran (OCC), Match not held
Aleks Trifunovic (CERR) def. Peter Hariri (OCC), 6-2, 6-2
James Zhang (CERR) led Kendall Harris (OCC), 6-2, 5-0
Carlos Mendez (CERR) vs. Noah Prohaska (OCC), Match not held
Biel Roca Carreras (CERR) vs. Ross Ewart (OCC), Match not held

DOUBLES
Sasha Krasnov/Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) def. Brendan Baar/Peter Hariri (OCC), 8-3
Kwang-Eun Lee/Marcos Paulo Silvestre (CERR) def. Kendall Harris/Jaime Sabate (OCC), 8-0
Aleks Trifunovic/James Zhang (CERR) def. Quoc Tran/Ross Ewart (OCC), 8-2

Photos by Daryl Peterson