Just one win away from playing for the Southern California Team Dual Championship, the Cerritos College men’s tennis team came up short in a marathon match at Grossmont College on Tuesday, losing a 5-4 decision. The 5 ½-hour match came down to the third set of the #2 doubles match, which went to a tie-breaker. Trailing 6-5 in the tie-breaker, freshman Matt Jun (Cerritos HS) gets his first serve in, but his return forehand sailed wide, which gave the Griffins the 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-7 (5) win in the match and the team victory. They will now advance to the Southern California Championship against to-seeded Ventura College, who had handed the Falcons (18-2) their only other loss of the season.

    The match was held at Grossmont, who was seeded #2 in the playoffs, while the Falcons were relegated to the #4 spot, although they were ranked #2 in Southern California. Cerritos will now focus on the Southern California Regional tournament, as they have a large contingent of players that have qualified. The tournament will be held this weekend at Riverside Community College and the Falcons will be represented by Doug Edwards (Western HS), Jason Wall (Lakewood HS), Nik Bote (Mayfair HS) and Carlos Gomez (Kennedy HS) in singles play, with Edwards and Wall, Gomez and David Sim (Cerritos HS), along with Bote and Jun in doubles play.

    The match against the Griffins was tight from beginning to end, as the two teams split the six singles matches, while three of them went to a third set. Edwards won a 6-2, 7-6 (2) decision over Joao Toledo in the #1 position, while Bote came out on top in a three-hour match against Gustavo Rodriguez in the #3 spot. He won the first set, 7-5, but dropped the second, 6-7 (4), which required a tie-breaker third set. In that, Bote squeezed out a 7-5 win, which put the Falcons in the best position they could be in at the start of doubles play. Sim posted the other win in singles with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Alex McDaniel. Both Wall (3-6, 7-5, 2-6) and Gomez (7-6 (6), 2-6, 2-6) each lost three-set decisions.

    In doubles play, the top team of Edwards and Wall exacted revenge on Olumide Sherman-Norman and Waylon Bennett with a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Just two days earlier, they were defeated 4-6, 6-3. 5-7 in the semi-finals of the Ojai Tournament, with the Grossmont pair going on to win the doubles championship. After Gomez and Sim were defeated, 4-6, 1-6, the match came down to Bote and Jun.

Singles:

Doug Edwards (CERR) def. Joao Toledo (GRO), 6-2, 7-6 (2)
Waylon Bennett (GRO) def. Carlos Gomez (CERR), 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-2
Olumide Sherman-Norman (GRO) def. Jason Wall (CERR), 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Nik Bote (CERR) def. Gustavo Rodrigues (GRO), 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-5
David Sim (CERR) def. Alex McDaniel (GRO), 7-5, 6-4
Manuel Castillo (GRO) def. Mike Fitzgerald (CERR), 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:

Doug Edwards/Jason Wall (CERR) def. Olumide Sherman-Norman/Waylon Bennett (GRO), 6-3, 7-5
Joao Toledo/Howarth (GRO) def. Nik Bote/Matt Jun (CERR), 6-7 (1), 6-1, 7-6 (5)
Alex McDaniel/Manuel Castillo (GRO) def. Carlos Gomez/David Sim (CERR), 6-4, 6-1