Two singles and three doubles players won their matches as the Cerritos College men’s tennis hosted the South Coast Conference Tournament on April 19 and 20.

Journalism and history major Andrew Turner talked about the tournament.

“Well I mean this is the South Coast Conference Tournament so at this point everybody’s just looking for one last chance to extend their season.”

Turner said that the SCC tournament is the post season for individuals and everybody playing is trying to qualify for regionals.

He continued, “This being my second year, I only got one more chance at this so I’m just trying to make the most of it.”

According to Turner, two of his teammates had lost to his opponent earlier in the year in third set tie breakers, but admitted he didn’t know what to expect.

He explained his team’s game plan.

” [I] just got out there, chased down every ball try to make him hit one more and just out will him.”

Undecided major Brandon Chang was another Falcons player that competed in day one of the tournament.

Chang talked about how he thought he fared.

“I did okay, [I was] kind of nervous in the beginning, but tried to get warmed up quickly and get in the hitting zone.”

According to Chang, the competition he had faced in the tournament was decent, but he said that he needs to improve his footwork.

Chang won 6-1, 6-1.

Computer engineering major Kyle Porter also played tournament.

When asked how he thought him and his teammates performed, he said, “I think all my teammates won today so I’m happy for them, and I feel like I did good.”

Halfway through a ten point tie breaker needed to decide the match, Porter said he started cramping up.

He fought the pain as long as he could but said, “Then, when it came to the last point before we were going to finish it got really bad and it just got super tight and we couldn’t even put pressure on it.”

Porter mentioned afterward that if he could’ve done anything different it would have been to hit his shots deeper.

Cerritos College Head Coach Alvin Kim talked about his team’s overall performance on day one.

“We were upset at two positions but came through with all of our men’s doubles teams.”

Coach Kim also said that the Falcons were victorious in four men’s singles matches but still needed to wait for the results of day two to see if they will be qualifying for the Regionals.

When asked how he prepares his players for games of this magnitude, Kim said, “A lot of it is about body management because in tournaments you play back to back days so we don’t have rest days.”

He said that proper hydration, nutrition and rest are all keys to winning around this time of year for his team.