College of the Desert sends duo into final day of men's tennis state championships
WALNUT - After coming off of a team championship two weeks ago, College of the Desert will be represented in the semifinals for Day 2 of the CCCAA State Tennis Singles Championships with two singles and a doubles team.
COD No. 2 and No. 3 singles seeds from the South, Marco Alvarez and Raymundo Chavez, respectively, moved into the semifinals. No. 3 Seed Alvarez and Chavez will also compete in a doubles match.
All of the matches for the two Desert players were two-set sweeps on Day 1.
The “Triple Crown” of tennis is awaiting both Alvarez and Chavez if they can come home with the singles and doubles title on Saturday.
“It’s really nice to be in the state championships for me,” said Alvarez, who was quite animated on Friday in his matches. “My goal this year was to go undefeated. We did it as a team (18-0) when we won the state and I hope to finish it off (Saturday).”
In the first round of the men’s singles, the South won all eight matches, which included an upset of the No. 1 North, Ravi Nelson (American River College), 6-3, 6-1, by Philemon Jabin of Ventura College.
In the singles semis, Alvarez will face No. 4 South Pierre Van de Gaer (Irvine Valley) and Chavez will go up against the top seed in the South, Arthur Bellegy (IVC), who has dropped only one game in his four set wins.
Ventura and Irvine Valley colleges will be represented with two doubles teams each in the semifinals. Ventura No. 4 South Ryan Lam and Yuya Koide won in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 and will face the No. 1 North team of Micah Erwin and Nelson of American River College.
In addition, Jabin and Jinsei Tajima of Ventura won in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1. Jabin lost in the quarterfinals of the singles earlier in the day.
IVC will have both doubles teams of No. 4 South Bellegy/Kiichi Ishida and 5S Braun/Van de Gaer going up against Ishikawa/Ma and Homma/Martirosian, respectively.
Semifinal action in singles begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday with doubles expected at the conclusion of singles play.
Release by John Sherrard, CCCSIA/Mt. San Antonio College Athletics