Carlos Ruiz
The Cerritos College men’s tennis team are now the Southern California Champions and for the first time in the college’s history they will play for the California Community College Athletic Association Dual Team State Championship.
They have had the opportunity to reach the SoCal finals match in previous seasons, but were never capable of moving forward into the state finals.
The Falcons team now 27-2 overall, won the SoCal regional finals game against the Ventura College Pirates in a 5-0 shutout.
The tennis team swept Ventura College in both singles and doubles, the Falcons seeded No. 1 in the state, while the Pirates seeded No. 2.
Following the SoCal win, they will now travel to Ventura College to face the Northern California Champions, the American River College Beavers.
The Falcons have faced the Beavers once before on March 29 in a regular season match, in which they came out victorious 9-0.
During the SoCal finals match against the Pirates, the day started with three doubles’ matches that went the Falcons’ way.
With three wins in the doubles under the team’s belt, they went on into the singles’ matches with a steady lead.
The team won two out of the six singles’ matches, but didn’t finish the other four. The Falcons still led the other four matches until the end of match time.
Head coach Quinn Caldaron thought the team showed out a great performance and played very well.
“It was really about sticking to the routine and doing what we practiced,” Caldaron said.
Caldaron said, “It was a luxury to walk into such a great team and a good group of guys and girls. They’ve been more than awesome with how they’ve welcomed me and how they rallied together and stuck together as a team.”
The head coach thinks that if the Falcons play how they did against Ventura College going into the state championships they’ll be just fine.
“Our biggest thing is just staying mentally focused and our skills speak for themselves, so as long as we’re on top of our game and we focus on what we do best, we’re gonna do fine,” Caldaron said.
Freshman Kent Hunter won one of the doubles’ matches, along side his partner freshman Victor Castro.
Hunter gave praise to the team’s overall performance in the doubles as they wiped the Pirates 3-0 in that section of the game.
“The doubles were very solid, all three teams played really well. I think it was one of the best [performances] that the entire team has [given] overall,” Hunter said.
Unfortunately Hunter was not able to finish his singles match, but was up a set and was leading the score toward the end of the match time.
“We have a chance at winning state, both the men and the women’s team,” said Hunter referring to the win against Ventura College.
Freshman Dario Rico won both of the matches he participated in, including the doubles with his teammate sophomore Kwangeun Lee.
Rico came out victorious in his singles match, one of the two that completed the actual matchup.
“We came with a lot of energy and a very positive attitude,” Rico said.
Rico says the win was important to the team because they have been on fire and very focused.
“We can get it and we want to get the ring!” Rico said joyfully.
Rico is only trying to improve on his nervousness for the coming game against American River College.
He says how the nervousness before his doubles match against Ventura College caused him to play with a disadvantage.
Doubles’ Victories:
Hunter and Castro (8-3)
Freshman Alex Prokopchuk and sophomore Marcos Paulo Silvestre (8-4)
Rico and Lee (8-6)
Singles’ Scores:
Hunter led 6-4, 3-0 DNF
Castro led 6-3, 5-2 DNF
Prokopchuk won 6-3, 7-5
Sophomore Biel Roca Carreras led 6-3, 4-3 DNF
Rico won 6-0, 6-1
Lee led 6-2, 5-4 DNF
On the same day, the Falcons’ women’s tennis team won the SoCal championship for the second time in three seasons.
The Falcons swept its opponent Glendale College 5-0.
They will now travel to Ventura College and face the Northern California Champion De Anza College.
They’ve played De Anza College once before in the beginning of the season and won 8-1.
In 2016, the women’s team defeated De Anza College for their first ever CCCAA State Championship.
The Cerritos College men’s tennis team will head to Ventura College and play American River College for the state title on April 25.
Following the state championship match the Falcons will travel to Ojai for the individual state championship tournament on April 26 into the weekend.