American River men's tennis wins third consecutive NorCal title

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - For the third consecutive season the American River men's tennis team won the CCCAA Northern California men's tennis team championship, this time with a 5-0 win over visiting De Anza College on Saturday.

In 2016 and 2017 the Beavers beat the Owls from Foothill College for the title. In 2018 they faced off against Coast Conference champion, the De Anza Dons. In the doubles, the No. 3 tandem of Andrei Anderson and Rob Kendall put the Beavers on the board first, winning by a score of 8-2. At No. 1 doubles, Sam Hall and Mikey Vizcarra avenged a loss earlier in the season to the NorCal No. 3 ranked duo of Evan Gazikian and JT Gaviano by a score of 8-3. At No. 2 Paul Bhatia and Pete Gibson were down an early break, but were able to battle back and earn an 8-6 victory over the Don's No. 2 team of Yuriy Anisimov and Aditya Goyal.

Heading in to the singles up 3-0 was a big advantage for the Beavers, but the Dons came back strong once the singles play began. Every position was a battle, with the Beavers and the Dons splitting the first sets of the six singles matches. The first to finish was No. 6, as the Beaver's Rob Kendall beat Mariano Sigifredo 6-1, 6-2. Mikey Vizcarra sealed the team victory for the Beavers as he came back from a break down in the second set to clinch with a win at No. 2 singles by the score of 6-1, 6-4. At No. 1 Paul Bhatia had lost the first set, but was serving for the second set at 5-3 when the team match was clinched. At No. 3, Pete Gibson had match points against JT Gaviano at 6-3, 5-1 when Vizcarra closed out his match for the Beavers team victory. Sam Hal (No. 4) and Andrei Anderson (No. 5) had both lost the first sets, but were fighting to come back in their respective matches when the dual team match was called.

The Beavers will next play SoCal champion Cerritos for the CCCAA State Championships on Wednesday at Ventura College.

(American River College Athletics)