The Cerritos College women's tennis team will be sending four singles players and one doubles team to the CCCAA State Tournament in Ojai starting April 23. The Falcons, who hosted the South Coast Conference Tournament over the weekend, had a doubles team reach the finals, while one advanced as far as the semifinals in singles play. The team will resume the Southern California Team Playoffs on Tuesday when they travel to Glendale College for their semifinal match.

Day 1: The team's top three singles players all won both of their matches, with one match consisting of teammates facing each other. Both Anastasia Khomyachenko (Sochi, Russia) and Stef Flores (Golden Valley Charter HS) won their first round singles matches, which pitted them against each other in the second round. The two are also doubles partners, and Khomyachenko came away with a 6-1, 6-3 win, which eliminated Flores.

Freshman Taylor Heath (Cerritos HS) posted a 6-1, 6-0 win in her first match and then defeated Barbara Haikal, the #3 player from College of the Desert, 6-0, 7-5. As for freshman Mariia Yatsenko (School 328, Ukraine), she won a pair of straight set matches on the first day. If both Heath and Yatsenko win their quarterfinal match, they will square off in the semi-finals.

In doubles action, Heath and Yatsenko paired up to win 8-0 in their second round match after receiving a bye in the first round. Khomyachenko and Flores also received a bye in the first round and then posted an 8-1 win to reach the quarterfinals. The Falcons third doubles pairing, Merli Alcasid (Gahr HS) and Katia Brambila (Bell HS) registered an 8-6 win in their lone match of the day.

Day2: Khomyachenko fought back in her quarterfinal singles match to defeat Laura Arruda of College of the Desert, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6. She struggled to get back into a rhythm in the second set and even started the third set down 0-3. But she broke Arruda twice and took a 4-3 lead on her way to the win. In her semifinal match, Khomyachenko was defeated by Connie Aranguiz of Mt. San Antonio, 6-1, 6-1. Khomyachenko and doubles partner Flores, were bested by eventual champions Aranguiz and Kristen Canones, 8-1 in the quarterfinals. The Falcons other doubles pair, Heath and Yatsenko defeated the other two Mt. SAC teams in the tournament, including an 8-1 win in the semifinals with Yatsenko fighting through an injury to advance to the finals.

Day 3: The injury to Yatsenko hampered her mobility in the finals, as she and Heath were defeated by Canones and Aranguiz, 8-1. But the pair have qualified for the state tournament for advancing to the semifinals.

Photos by Daryl Peterson