The Cerritos College men’s tennis team is showing why they have won the last four straight South Coast Conference titles and have gone undefeated in doing so. After the first round of the SCC Championships, the Falcons have seen four of their singles players advance to the quarterfinals, while the semi-finals of the doubles competition consists of three teams from Cerritos. The final two rounds of the tournament will be held at Long Beach City College on Thursday and Friday.
The team’s top singles player, freshman Doug Edwards (Western HS), opened with a bye before a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Max Vallejo of Long Beach City. He is in the same bracket as freshman Carlos Gomez (Kennedy HS), who defeated freshman teammate Matt Fitzgerald (Lakewood HS) in the second round, 6-3, 6-2 after receiving a first round bye. Fitzgerald opened with an 8-2 win over Sean Novin of El Camino before being eliminated.
In the other bracket, freshman Jason Wall (Lakewood HS) posted wins over Nat Boochangkool of Long Beach City, 8-1 and Nathan Bowers (6-1, 6-1) of El Camino to reach the semi-finals. He is now slated to face Joe DeGuzman of LBCC in the semifinals. Also looking to reach the semis is freshman Nik Bote (Mayfair HS), who has already posted wins over Akira Sawada (8-0) of Mt. San Antonio and James Higuera (6-3, 6-1), also of Mt. SAC. His next opponent is Tsuyoshi Nagaoko of El Camino.
The doubles tournament has Edwards and Wall squaring off against Gomez and freshman David Sim (Cerritos HS), with the winner competing in the championships. Looking to join the winner of that match is Bote and freshman Matt Jun (Cerritos HS), who will be facing Nagaoko and Clark Coble of El Camino.
