ARC Men’s Tennis Goes 2-1 Against Top SoCal Competition
ARC-5 Ventura:2
ARC-5 Grossmont-0
ARC-3 Cerritos-6
Overall: 10-1 Conference: 5-0
The Beavers traveled to Fresno to compete in the annual North/South Tournament. The event features three of the top teams from each region to matchup against each other in a battle for regional supremacy. In the overall score, the South edged the North by a 5-4 score in dual-team matches. ARC represented the North well, winning two of three team matches.
The Beavers started the tournament by facing the SoCal #4 team, the Ventura College Pirates. ARC performed extremely well, clinching the match when #1 singles player, Cody Duong, won the 10-point match tiebreak versus Pirate #1, Bill Whitaker. Tam Duong (#2) and Mikey Vizcarra (#3) each played clean matches, winning their respective singles matches in straight sets. The doubles was highlighted by Eric De Ramos/Andy Vang (#2) who closed out the match without losing a point in the last two games after the Pirates evened up the score at 6-6.
In the second team matchup of the tournament, the Beavers faced the Griffins from Grossmont College. At #1 doubles C. Duong/T. Duong came back from a 6-1 deficit to win eight of the last nine games and a 9-7 victory. Justin Barton/De Romas (#2) and Pete Gibson/Vizcarra (#3) rolled to victories, 8-3 and 8-2 respectively. In the singles, Vang (#6) cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 victory and Neville Cooper (#4) clinched the dual-team victory with a 6-1, 7-5 win.
The final team match for the Beavers was against the SoCal #2 team, the Cerritos College Falcons. The Beavers took two of the three doubles matches with solid performances by C. Duong/T. Duong (#1) and Cooper/Vizcarra (#3). Cooper/Vizcarra were down 5-1 and ripped off seven straight games, in what could only be described as Beaver Magic, for the 8-5 victory. In the singles, the Beavers performed admirably, but were outmatched at #3-#6. The bottom half of the lineup battled well, but the Falcons were too experienced for the young Beavers at those spots, as Cerritos won each of those positions in straight sets. At #1 singles C. Duong came back from a set and 3-1 down to take the 2nd set 6-3 against 2016 State # 4 player, Sasha Krasnov. In the 10-point match tiebreak, Krasnov pulled away early and beat Duong by a score of 10-4 in an exciting battle between the two great #1's. At #2, T. Duong took the first set versus 2016 State #6 Nikita Katsnelson 6-3. In the 2nd set Duong had a letdown of focus that lasted all the way to being down 7-1 in the match-tiebreak. Duong found his game and battled back to take nine of the last ten points, finishing the match winning by the score of a 10-8 in the tiebreak. Yet another incredibly resilient comeback for the Beavers at the 2017 North/South Tournament.
The Beavers will take the incredible experience gained by playing the tough SoCal competition and finish their regular season with the Big 8 North Conference Playoffs next week. It will begin with the conference semifinal against Diablo Valley College on Tuesday, March 21 on the ARC courts.