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ARC Men's Tennis Finishes Ranked #2 in the State

Men's Tennis Team Photo

In the Beavers' shortened 2020 season, they earned the highest team ranking they have had in over 50 years. When the final poll came out, the Beavers finished at #2 in the state rankings, which is the highest they have placed since they won the state title in 1966. "It's not the way you want to earn something like this, and it would have been nice to have had a shot at winning the whole thing, but it is still a sign of the incredible work these boys do and the amazing future our program has ahead." Head coach Bo Jabery Madison explained, " When you consider that we are doing this with primarily all local talent, our results for the last 8 years or so, have been truly amazing." The beavers have placed in the top 5 of the state rankings in each of the last 8 seasons, reaching the state team championship match 3 times, but have not been ranked higher than #3 in the state until this year.

Despite the abbreviated year, there were many highlights for the Beavers in the 2019-20 campaign. To start the season in September, the Beavers had both singles finalists (Robin Sharma and Younes Kodiji) and doubles finalists (Stephen Guenard/Sharma and Jack Hall/Gabe Kinder) in the ITA Preseason Regional event. Kodiji and Hall/Kinder represented ARC at the National ITA Cup, each winning a round at the prestigious event. In the regular season the Beavers beat NCAA DII opponent, Holy Names University, by the score of 5-2. ARC would also compete well against other four-year competition, Sonoma State and UC Santa Cruz, losing in the deciding match in each dual-match by the scores of 4-3 and 5-4 respectively. In regular season tournament competition, the Beavers won the Modesto Junior College Invitational in February and were undefeated against community colleges in dual-matches, having won every dual-match by a shutout score of 9-0.

Because of the extenuating circumstances of the cancelled season, all CCCAA athletes will receive another year of eligibility. This allows sophomores to play another year, if it matches their athletic and academic needs. Coach Jabery Madison stated "Many of our guys from this past season will be coming back and we are getting a talented group of incoming players. It should be another fun season next year, and with the experience of this year in our back pocket, we'll be even better prepared to take a run at our first state title in the modern era."