After sweeping through the South Coast Conference season and boasting the singles and doubles champion after the conference tournament, the Cerritos College men’s tennis team will now open the Southern California Regional Team Playoffs at home on Tuesday, as they host #7-seeded Orange Coast College at 2:00 p.m.

    The Falcons (17-1), the #4-seeded team in Southern California, beat the Pirates, 9-0 earlier in the season. The winner of this match advances to the next round and will face the winner of the Grossmont-Los Angeles Pierce match.

    In the win over Orange Coast (12-5), Cerritos won four of the singles matches in straight sets, while they were able to come away with wins in the two that went three sets, which came in the #4 and #5 singles positions.

    The Falcons are led by an all-freshmen team with Doug Edwards (Western HS), who won the conference singles title, ranked #5 in Southern California. His doubles partner, Jason Wall (Lakewood HS), who he teamed with to win the conference doubles champion, is ranked #12 in singles play, with Nik Bote (Mayfair HS) ranked #13. The top Pirate singles player is Gio Villicana, who Edwards defeated, 6-4, 6-0 in their lone meeting. Edwards and Wall are ranked #4 in Southern California, with Pat Lam and Kevin Tran leading the way for OCC, ranked #13.

    The other first-round match-ups are as follows:

#6 College of the Desert @ #1 Ventura
#5 Mt. San Jacinto @ #3 Riverside
#7 Orange Coast @ #4 Cerritos
#8 Los Angeles Pierce @ #2 Grossmont

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SEEDINGS

#1 - Ventura
#2 - Grossmont
#3 - Riverside
#4 - Cerritos
#5 - Mt. San Jacinto
#6 - College of the Desert
#7 - Orange Coast
#8 - Los Angeles Pierce