A pair of Cerritos College women's tennis singles players and one doubles team have advanced past the first day of the South Coast Conference Tournament. The Falcons, who are serving as the hosts of the tournament, saw freshman Samantha Judan (Bishop Montgomery HS) and sophomore Cyd Dionson (Western HS) win to reach the quarterfinals, while the doubles team of Judan and freshman Rianne Ilagan (Bellflower HS) are now in the semi-finals. The finals rounds of the tournament will take place next Thursday and Friday at Cerritos College.

Judan, who was seeded #4, received a bye in the first round and then defeated Mt. San Antonio College's Nicole Gandasutisna, 6-2, 6-1 in her lone match of the day. She will now take on #5-seeded Alvenna Lee of Mt. San Antonio at 1:00 p.m. next Thursday. As for Dionson,, the #9-seed opened with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Gaby Zarate of Long Beach City College before registering a straight set upset of #8-seeded Alyssa Penner of Mt. SAC. Dionson recorded a 6-4, 6-4 win, which pits her against top-seeded Chun Young Shin of El Camino College on Thursday.

Dropping their lone match of the day and were eliminated from the tournament were Ilagan, who lost 3-6, 2-6 to Heather Mac of Mt. SAC, while freshman Natalie Perez (Lakewood HS) was defeated 1-6, 1-6 by #2-seeded Mariel Bautista of Mt. SAC. Freshman Jessica Alcayde (Cabrillo HS) was eliminated , 6-7 (1-7), 1-6 by Heather Shambrey of El Camino.

In doubles action, #5-seeded Judan and Ilagan recorded an 8-2 upset win over #3-seeded Bautista and Penner of Mt. SAC, while sends them to the semi-finals against #1-seeded Shin and Kia Choi at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday. The other doubles team of #6 seeds Perez and Dionson were defeated, 8-6 by #4-seeded Karin Endo and Shambrey of ECC.

Photo by Daryl Peterson