The Cerritos College men’s tennis team (10-2) swept El Camino College, 3-0, its doubles matches while winning five of the six matches in singles on Tuesday.

The team’s undefeated No. 2 singles player and member of the No.1 doubles team, sophomore Jonny Chai, did not finish his singles match and had to be replaced by one of his teammates in the team’s doubles match.

Chai said he did not think he was going to finish the singles match to start, but did win one set before retiring during his singles match.

“I was trying to hit the ball a little harder than usual and I guess I did not warm up properly, so I strained the middle part of my back,” he said.

Also during the doubles match, he went on to say that the freshmen that came in this year gave the team a big boost.

Seven out of the 11 players on the roster are freshmen or are new to Cerritos College.

Freshmen Jeric Paul Elchico replaced Chai in the doubles match along with the No. 1 player on the team, sophomore Derek Siddiqui.

The duo finished its match 8-5.

After the match, Siddiqui said, “It’s pretty tough because [ECC] has a good team, but we pulled it out.”

Andrew Turner, a transfer student from Cal State Long Beach, spoke about the competition the ECC team was in.

“I think El Camino was our toughest competition in conference. El Camino is going to be the toughest team for a while,” Turner said.

Turner went on to say that ECC should be tough next year also, because the team is stacked with freshmen.

Turner’s doubles teammate, Nick Johnson, was happy about the team’s growth from last year and that the team sealed conference on Tuesday.

“I think we have been doing great compared to last year; we are clinching matches that we couldn’t last year,” Johnson said.

The Cerritos College team has now beaten each team in the SCC twice, and Siddiqui now feels confident that the team will take first in the conference with one more meeting.

“I am not looking forward to that; I am looking forward to the [Ojai Tournament] and state championship because my partner and I are ready to go,” he said.

Siddiqui lost in the semi-finals of state last year to the top seeded Mount San Antonio College.

He was the No. 1 ranked player in state at the beginning of the year, and has gone 7-0 this season.

Chai has a 6-1 doubles record, pairing with three different partners.

Cerritos has matches until the SCC Tournament, held at Cerritos on April 5, 7 and 8.

The next match will be at home against Pima College on Thursday.