With his 6-2, 7-5 win over El Camino College’s Clark Coble, Cerritos College freshman tennis player Doug Edwards (Western HS) advanced to the singles championship of the South Coast Conference Tennis Championships, which are being held at Long Beach City College. Edwards will also be playing in the doubles championship, as he and freshman teammate Jason Wall (Lakewood HS) eliminated teammates Carlos Gomez (Kennedy HS) and David Sim (Cerritos HS), 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the finals.
The singles championship is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m., followed by the doubles championship. All matches are being played at Long Beach City College.
Edwards needed to beat two El Camino players on Thursday to reach the finals, as he won, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) over Keith Bogerro in the quarterfinals and then beat Coble in the semis. He will now face El Camino’s Tsuyoshi Nagaoko in the championships after LBCC’s Joe DeGuzman defaulted in the semifinals. Edwards has faced Nagaoko twice on the season and defeated him in straight sets both times. Gomez was defeated by Coble in the quarterfinals (4-6, 0-6), while Wall was upended by DeGuzman, 6-7 (5), 6-2, (10-7) in a marathon match. The third Falcon to advance to the quarterfinals was freshman Nik Bote (Mayfair HS), who lost to Nagaoko, 5-7, 0-6.
In doubles action, Edwards and Wall breezed in their quarterfinal match, winning, 6-0, 6-0, before they defeated Gomez and Sim to reach the finals. They will now face Nagaoko and Coble in the championships, a team they have faced just once and defeated them 9-7 in SCC play. Bote and freshman Matt Jun (Cerritos HS) were the third doubles team to reach the quarterfinals, where they were defeated by Nagaoko and Coble, 6-4, 2-6, (5-7).
