As the season ends for the men and women’s tennis teams, the women conclude with a 10-5 overall record, and the men finish 26-1.

The teams now begin to prepare for the South Coast Conference Tournament and afterwards the State Championships.

On the women’s season, head coach Alvin Kim said, “Our achilles heel really was doubles[…] we saw growth in some of the girls that we had. We were supposed to have a stronger team but we had one girl that left on transfer, a lot of sophomores left us last year, and a couple of recruits couldn’t come for various reasons.”

“But they really bonded together and did real well to win conference. We’re not seeded as high as we like to be but I feel we’re playing well and now we have the spirit of ‘we can rest’ and prepare for the grind of playoffs.”

The team members feel they have learned and grown from the season and are mentally prepared for the South Coast Conference. As Sophomore Elizabeth Aceves said;

“Mentally, we’re all prepared. We all want to go have fun kick some ass, but maybe physically we’re all just really exhausted and hurting […] we’re just physically exhausted, but mentally that’s all you need. I’ve played against some girls who were much stronger players than me, but since they were not prepared mentally or they talked themselves out of it they lose it […] if we just go in positively, we got it” she said.

A few of the women explained how exhausted they were, but all made clear that they were ready mentally.

Sophomore Danielle Pastor said, “[We improved] in doubles defiantly, because last year […] doubles was not my strong point at all and we worked a lot on it this season. Especially with our new Coach [Jon Neri], we worked a lot on new techniques to be more aggressive so that helped a lot”

The men closed their season out with victories over College of the Desert and Mesa (AZ) College to finish the season on a 17-game win streak.

Against College of the Desert, Cerritos won 8-1 only dropping one of the six singles matches, but sweeping the Roadrunners in all three doubles matches.

The men also matched up against Mesa (AZ), where the Falcons would escape with a 5-4 win.

The teams would split the singles matches, each team winning three, but the men would take two of the three doubles matches and close out the season.

The only loss of the season for the men came at the hands of Irvine Valley by a score of 5-4 on Feb. 25.

The men’s team will also prepare for the South Coast Conference Tournament and the State Championships.

As Kim is the Head Coach for both the men’s and women’s team, about the men he said; “A lot of our guys are sophomores, they’ve been here in the exact same [place] as last year, we finished number two in state. And I don’t think they’re as afraid anymore and so you see a little bit more tenacity. They’re grinding a little bit more, staying on point instead of panicking.”

“We’re challenging all the esteem and went undefeated against all four years schools this year […] thats a lot of the experiences that the sophomores had last year that they’re caring over to this year.”

The men and women both finished the season in first place in the South Coast Conference and will participate in the SCC tournament Thursday.