ARC goes 1-1 against SoCal teams, Falls 6-3 to NCAA DIII #33 George Fox University

3/26/18-3/29/18
ARC-8 Bakersfield-1
ARC-3 George Fox-6
ARC-0 Cerritos-9
Overall: 12-2 Conference: 6-0

The Beavers took a trip to Southern California and played some of the best SoCal competition and NCAA DIII #33 ranked team George Fox University. On the way down, ARC beat Bakersfield College by an 8-1 score. Highlights for the Beavers against Bakersfield included Pete Gibson beating #4 Manrico Cabaloza without dropping a game and the #1 doubles team of Sam Hall/Mikey Vizcarra recovering from a slow start to beat Bakersfield #1 team of Manrico Cabaloza/Kaleb Johnson 8-5.

In the second match of the trip, the Beavers competed against the George Fox University Bruins. In their meeting last season the Beavers beat GFU 6-3 in an incredibly competitive match, and this year's match was no less competitive. ARC was led by the #2 doubles tandem of Bhatia/Gibson, as they beat the Bruins' #2 team of Alex and Peyton Namba by a score of 8-5. Other highlights for the Beavers included Paul Bhatia (#2) and Andrei Anderson (#5) winning close and competitive singles matches. The Bruins' lineup featured former ARC Beaver Justin Barton at #3 doubles.

In the final match of the road trip the Beavers played the SoCal #1 Cerritos Falcons. It was an uphill battle from the beginning, but ARC met the challenge bravely. At #2, #3, and #4 singles the Beavers had their opportunities and kept the matches very close before falling in hard-fought straight set matches. At #5, Andrei Anderson won the first set in a tiebreaker, but fell in a 3rd 10-point tiebreaker. Assistant coach Adam Duong explained that" it was the best match we have played this year in the sense that we came back from losing all 3 doubles matches to make the singles an all-out battle. We will be even more ready for Cerritos if we get to play them again."

ARC will now embark on a journey to win their 3rd straight NorCal championship, starting with a first-round playoff match against the Rams from Fresno City College on Tuesday, April 10th.