Freshmen Petra Such and sophomore Sasha Krasnov were able to claim conference player of the year for both the men and women’s.
With a first place award in her hand she said, “I’m really happy, I finished to succeed. Specifically against Danielle Pastor, I played really well. In the finals we [partner Diviana Bravo] were both very tired and exhausted. I’m satisfied with everything.”
Such defeated Jess Esquivel and Jess Diaz from Rio Hondo in the first two round on the tournament.
She went on to beat teammates Danielle Pastor and Diviana Bravo to become player of the year.
Both the men and women tennis teams had blowout victories during the South Coast Conference Tournament, facing Rio Hondo, Mt. San Antonio College and El Camino.
It came to the point that a few of the doubles matches were postponed and took place Monday instead of Friday, since the teams that went up against each were both Falcons. The other schools didn’t make it to the end of the conference.
Runner-up for men’s tennis singles tournament, Aleks Trifunovic, also had a great conference.
“I’m very happy that I made it to the finals. I had a very long semi-finals match so I was pretty exhausted for the finals, but I did the best that I could and I just happen to play a better opponent. It’s been a good day,” he said.
From the men’s team the conference champion winner was sophomore Sasha Kransnov.
Krasnov was granted a first-round bye for being the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
In his first round of play, Krasnov defeated Luis Tenada from El Camino, then went on to defeat teammates James Zhang and Aleks Trifunovic to defend his title.
This is the second straight year Krasnov has been crowned the SCC Player of the Year.
Head Coach Alvin Kim obtained for the fourth year in a row, the conference’s Coach of the Year award making it his seventh in his 14 years at Cerritos.
Being that he is the coach for both the men and women’s team. He commented on both.
For the men he said, “[The men’s team] was looking forward to really competitive matches, something to spark them up before play offs start on Tuesday. We saw some really good play even from players who were kind of slumping I felt like they kind of came through and played well.”
As conference ends, state is just around the corner. Kim feels his men are ready for state and will continue to motivate them in the upcoming days.
Kim went on to describe what he expected from the women.
“It was what we thought it would be. There was some tense moments on the women’s side in the end, but what [we] thought was going to happen, happened. In the end things worked out,” he said.
Since the double finals were all Cerritos, the match took place on Monday.
The team of Petra Such and Diviana Bravo defeated Danielle Pastor and Elizabeth Aceves, 8-3, and Sasha Krasnov and Nikita Katsnelson went to end the conference finals by beating the team of Aleks Trifunovic and James Zhang, 8-3.
Both the men and women will begin to get ready for CCCAA State Championship.
He continued “We know the grind that it is and what a battle it is, so even after this [during the week] they’ll run like three miles and go back to the weight room and get things started.”
CCCAA will be a five day event that will begin on Wednesday, April 12 at Ojai.
“We’re ready” Kim concluded.
