The Western State Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament was held at Pershing Park on Friday and Saturday, and four Vaqueros will advance to the Southern California Regionals.
With what has been a roller coaster season for the Vaqueros, the coaching staff and the players hope to end it on a positive note going into next season.
Ryan Heinberg replaced head coach Don Lowry, who had been a Vaquero for four seasons, in the middle of the season.
The Vaquero tennis team is 7-6, 6-2 and despite having a worse record than last year, the team is optimistic about the future behind its new head coach.
“The players are just great guys,” coach Heinberg said. “This is my first college team to coach, so I’m excited.”
The WSC tournament is used as a qualifier for the regional with all play stopping at the quarterfinal round.
The play will continue at the Ojai Invitational which will start play on Thursday.
The first day of the tournament was a real success, with three Vaqs qualifying for the third round, coming one step closer to the regional.
Nikolay Ivanov had a bye in the first round and then cruised past Dinusha Wijesurija of Glendale, taking the scores to 6-4, 6-1. Ivanov, who is a freshman at City College from Bulgaria, was seeded No. 2 in the tournament.
Both Regis Fastrez and Zach Scott had first round byes as well and swept their games in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-0.
In doubles, Tommy McNichols and Quentin Richelle won a three-setter, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3 moving into the round of 16. The pair of Ivanov-Fastrez was seeded No. 2 and had a bye as did teammates Alex Zazove-Zach Scott and Nick Bonn-Justin Kautz.
Saturday was more difficult for the Vaqueros. Nikolay Ivanov defaulted against Ventura’s Pedro Arteaga, Regis Fastrez lost in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, and Zach Scott fell 6-3, 6-3.
“We had a lot of problems today,” Justin Kautz said “We had no real warm-ups because people came late, it was just a mess, and on top of that Ventura is a strong team.”
Western State Conference champions Ventura took seven out of eight singles berths.
Despite the trouble in singles, City College found a way to fight back in the doubles matches despite being heavy underdogs .
The pair Quentin Richelle-Tommy McNichols upset No. 7 seed Ari Cohen-Logan Feldstein of L.A. Pierce 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
But the game of the day was the Ivanov-Fastrez defeat of Gabriel Vlahos-Pedro Ayala of Ventura.
The game was decided after three hard fought sets, and the Vaqs prevailed, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-5 and advanced to the Ojai Invintational.
Four Vaquero’s will compete in Ojai.
Zazove will duel in singles and will compete with Scott in doubles, while Fastrez and Ivanov will partner up in doubles.
The team will look to continue its success at he Ojai Invitational that is set to begin Thursday and at the Southern California Regional on April 29 through May 1 at Cal State Northridge.
