CCCAA STATE CHAMPS DECIDED IN VENTURA
MEN: Southern California swept Northern California of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) championship medals as Irvine Valley College’s men’s tennis team and Cerritos College’s women’s team won 2016 CCCAA Dual Team State titles in kicking off the 116th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament on Wednesday. Irvine Valley (Irvine, Calif.) repeated as state champions with a convincing 5-1 victory over American River College (Sacramento) in a matchup of Southern and Northern California region top seeds at Ventura College. Javi Callejo, Octave Bellet and Bruno Figlia won their singles matches in straight sets for the Lasers, only yielding a combined three games in the three matches. Figlia was the only Laser to capture two points as he teamed with Scott Paz to win 8-4 in doubles. Irvine Valley’s Gavin Lynch and Kevin Pham also won their set in doubles, 8-3. The Lasers (21-2), playing in their third consecutive State final, won their last 16 matches of the season and completed a perfect season against community college competition (both defeats came to four-year universities). American River’s No. 1 doubles team of Joseph Capaul and Alex Meliuk earned the only point for the Beavers (17-3) with an 8-3 victory over Sam Cohen and Callejo.
WOMEN: Cerritos (Cerritos, Calif.) won its first state championship in dominating De Anza College (Cupertino, Calif.), 5-1, in the women’s final at Pierpont Racquet Club in Ventura, Calif. Falcons sophomore No. 1 singles player Taylor Heath clinched the title by defeating Van Nguyen, 6-4, 6-3 to earn the deciding point. Freshmen Tiffany Sanchez and Valentina Polonyi teamed together to win in doubles, 8-3, and split up to win singles matches from the Nos. 3 and 4 singles slots, respectively. Sanchez beat De Anza’s Izabella Hauger, 6-0, 6-0, while Polonyi ousted Meike Huizinga, 6-1, 6-2. Cerritos’ other point came in the form of an 8-3 victory from doubles partners Jovana Milosevic and Danielle Pastor. Nguyen and Polina Gorshenina defeated Heath and Anastasia Khomyachenko, 8-3, to earn the lone point for the Dons, 1998 CCCAA State champions and four-time Northern California region champs. The Falcons (25-1) ended the season on an 18-match winning streak and, like Irvine Valley’s men, went undefeated against CCCAA foes. Upstart De Anza was the No. 4 seed from Northern California, having defeated the top two seeds in the north – No. 1 Fresno City College and No. 2 Canada College in the NorCal region semifinals and finals, respectively.