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Photo:
Doug Edwards
and Jason Wall pose with Coach Alvin
Kim and others. |
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Large Photo |
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Last year,
Cerritos College men's tennis doubles team
Doug
Edwards (Western HS) and
Jason Wall (Lakewood HS) felt
that they played well enough to win the Ojai Valley
Tournament, but were eliminated in the semi-finals.
On Sunday, the duo started the tournament as the
#1-seeded team and proved that they deserved it by
easily defeating Richard Tetteh and Taylor Witt of
Mt. San Jacinto College, 6-0, 6-1. The tournament
championship was the first ever by a Cerritos team
and it sends the duo into the Southern California
Regional Playoffs brimming with confidence.
"At the trophy
presentation, the tournament director noted how many
times College of the Desert had won the event, but
that it was the first time for Cerritos to be in the
finals. He said that he thought Cerritos would be
taking over from now on," said a very excited
Alvin
Kim, the Falcons head coach.
The Cerritos duo
eliminated the final College of the Desert team in
the semi-finals, by defeating Bruno Araujo and
Alonso Leon, 6-3, 6-2. Throughout the four-day
tournament, Edwards could only use a one-handed
backhand due to an injury, as Kim taught it to him
prior to the start of the tournament.
After waiting two
hours past their starting time until they were the
final match on the court, a crowd came over to see
what all the noise was coming from the court. What
they found was a very motivated Edwards and Wall,
who not only defeated their opponents easily, they
won the final 11 games to show their dominance.
After Edwards
started the match by winning the first four points,
the duo broke Witt, while Wall held at love. They
finished off the first game by breaking Tetteh to
shut out their South Coast Conference foes. The
trend continued in the second set, and Edwards and
Wall achieved what they thought they would do last
year.
"After we won the
first four points of the second set, Tetteh
whispered to me during a changeover, 'coach, they're
on fire'. I could only smile because he was right,"
added Kim.
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