Looking for a return trip to the Southern California Team Duals championship match, the #2-ranked Cerritos College men's tennis team suffered a 5-1 loss to visiting Cypress College on Tuesday. A win would have advanced the Falcons (27-2) into the SoCal Finals and a rematch against #1-ranked Irvine Valley College, who defeated Cerritos in the SoCal Finals last year and handed them their only loss of the season entering the match.

The day did not go well from the outset for Cerritos, who were soundly defeated in all three of the doubles matches. The frustrations carried over into singles play, as #1-ranked Sasha Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) was defeated by #2-ranked Maximilian Blancaneaux, 6-2, 6-2. Earlier in the season, Krasnov won in three sets, which secured the top-seed for the upcoming CCCAA State Championships, which will be held in Ojai from April 27-30.

Cerritos was leading in two of the three matches that were not completed, while freshman Carlos Mendez (Instituto de Educación Secundaria Ies El Palo, Spain) earned the team's lone point with his 6-2, 6-4 win in the #6 singles match.

In their previous meeting, the Falcons won two of the three doubles matches and then locked down the victory with four more singles wins. They just coudn't get things going against the Chargers the second time around.

SINGLES
Maximilien Blancaneaux (CYP) def. Sasha Krasnov (CERR), 6-2, 6-2
Nikita Katsnelson (CERR) led Vincent Reynaud (CYP), 7-6, 2-2
Thomas Kyle (CYP) def. Aleks Trifunovic (CERR), 6-1, 6-4
Yubo Chen (CYP) led Bruno Duarte (CERR), 6-2, 2-1
James Zhang (CERR) led Petros Botha (CYP), 6-3, 3-2
Carlos Mendez (CERR) def. Ingmar Rennerswaal (CYP), 6-2, 6-4

DOUBLES
Maximilien Blancaneaux/Vincent Reynaud (CYP) def. Sasha Krasnov/Nikita Katsnelson (CERR), 8-3
Yubo Chen/Ingmar Rennerswaal (CYP) def. Marcos Paulo Silvestre/Kwang-Eun Lee (CERR), 8-3
Thomas Kyle/Gertjan De Wilder (CYP) def. Aleks Trifunovic/James Zhang (CERR), 8-3

Photos by Daryl Peterson