The Cerritos College men's tennis team suffered a couple of losses on the second day of the CCCAA State Championships at Ojai. The Falcons still have a pair of singles players and one doubles team remaining and have all advanced to the quarterfinals, which start Saturday morning.
Singles - Freshmen Oleksandr Krasnov (School 106, Ukraine) and Nikita Katsnelson (Odessa Gymnasium No. 1, Ukraine) represent all of the remaining entires. Krasnov, a #3-seeded player, opened the day with a 6-3, 6-2 win over #12-seeded Euan Rajanthiran of Foothill College and followed that with a Round of 16 win over #7-seeded Kyle Rae of Fresno City College, 7-5, 6-1. He will now take on #5-seeded Simon Hedberg of Santa Barbara City College at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Should he post a win, Krasnov will take on either #3-seeded Sean Alves of Folsom Lake College or #1-seeded Hironori Koyanagi of Ventura College. In the Southern California Team Playoffs, Krasnov led Koyanagi, 6-4, 6-5 in their only meeting.
As for the #7-seeded Katsnelson, his day started with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over unseeded Charlie Stephens if Imperial Valley College, which advanced him to the Round of 16 against Irvine Valley College's, Scott Paz. The #16-seeded Paz, upset #1-seeded Alax Meliuk, 6-4, 6-1 in his previus match. But Katsnelson was able to post a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win to advance to the quarterfinals, where he will face #10-seeded Javi Velasco of Irvine Valley College. A win in the semifinals will send Katsnelson to the semifinals against either Ron Kang of Mt. San Antonio or San Cohen of Irvine Valley. Katsnelson has faced Kang twice and lost in straight sets both times.
Three other Falcons started the day, but were defeated and eliminated. Freshman Agustin Lombardi (E.S.D.S., Argentina), seeded #11, opened the day with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Emerson Sekban of Santa Barbara City College, But in the Round of 16, Lombardi was beat by #2-seeded Cohen, 1-6, 0-6. Seeded #15, freshman Aleks Trifunovic (Katrinelunds Gymnasium, Sweden) absorbed an 0-6, 3-6 loss to Alves, while freshman James Zhang (Shenzhen Luohu Foreign Language School, China) saw his singles season come to an end when he was defeated by #6-seeded Kang, 5-7, 3-6.
Doubles - Krasnov and Katsnelson, who are seeded #2, posted a 6-4, 6-2 win in the Round of 32 over Michael Burr and Guenter Newman of Ventura College and ended their day with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Braden Holt and Igor Pissarenko of Foothill College. They will face #13-seeded Taylor Bryant and Peter Trhac of Palomar College at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.
The team's other doubles pair, #5-seeded Trifunovic and Zhang started off with a 6-0, 6-4 win against Rajanthiran and Jacob Strabo of Foothill College. However, their season came to an end with a hard-fought 0-6, 7-5, 9-11 loss against #2-seeded Cody Duong and Alex Meliuk of American River College.
October 3, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons win doubles title at ITA Tournament
April 24, 2016
M. Tennis: Doubles team loses in state semifinals
April 23, 2016
M. Tennis: Singles season comes to an end with semis loss
April 12, 2016
M. Tennis: Tough win over Ventura sends team to SoCal Finals
April 10, 2016
M. Tennis: Krasnov wins conference singles title
April 5, 2016
M. Tennis: Playoff win sets up showdown with Ventura
April 3, 2016
M. Tennis: Team seeded #2 for SoCal Team Playoffs
March 29, 2016
M. Tennis: Win over Ventura all but locks down #2 seed
March 24, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons beat El Camino for 20th win of the season
March 22, 2016
M. Tennis: Conference win keeps team undefeated
March 17, 2016
M. Tennis: Loss to NCAA DIII Amherst part of long week
March 15, 2016
M. Tennis: Team records Golden Match against Victor Valley
March 14, 2016
M. Tennis: Team posts 9-0 win over NCAA DIII RPI
March 8, 2016
M. Tennis: Cerritos drops 6-3 match to NCAA DIII school
March 3, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons lock down conference lead with win
March 1, 2016
M. Tennis: Win improves winning streak to 10 matches
February 26, 2016
M. Tennis: Second straight 9-0 win for the Falcons
February 25, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons post sweep of El Camino, 9-0
February 23, 2016
M. Tennis: Win over Mt. SAC keeps team in first place
February 16, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons sweep past Saddleback, 9-0
February 13, 2016
M. Tennis: Hard-fought win over Whittier College ends long week
February 12, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons shut out San Diego Mesa
February 11, 2016
M. Tennis: Conference season opens with 9-0 win
February 9, 2016
M. Tennis: Shutout win improves team's record to 4-1
February 5, 2016
M. Tennis: Team rebounds for 9-0 win
February 4, 2016
M. Tennis: Cerritos suffers loss to top-ranked Irvine Valley
February 2, 2016
M. Tennis: Cerritos sweeps past Riverside
January 28, 2016
M. Tennis: Falcons open season with 9-0 win