The young and inexperienced City College men’s tennis team came up short on Thursday, losing to LA Pierce College 7-2.

“The level of competition is very good this year and we are very inexperienced, which makes it tough for us to be very competitive,” said coach Brian Kettler. “But I am proud of our guys and the progress we are making.”

Court one was the site of the feature match between City College’s John Dutton and Pierce’s Amire Marandy, the French star who is and being pursued by schools such as UCLA to play for next season.

Marandy outlasted Dutton and ended up winning a hard fought battle, 3-6, 6-7, 7-2.

“I didn’t play very well in the first set,” Dutton said following his match. “But when I realized he was only hitting drop shots I started to play better and had thoughts of winning the match.”

City College lost all of their singles matches but did win two doubles matches on the day.

Dutton won a doubles match with Martin Kusters and beat James Magino and Evan Arsitarhy.

“John is playing well considering the level of competition he is facing,” said Kettler. “He is going to try and play for UCSB next season, and I think he has a good shot at making the team.”

Santa Barbara’s only win this year came against Allan Hancock earlier in the season. Their next match is at Bakersfield College on March 18th.

“A lot of our guys have’nt been playing for a very long time and are still learning the game, but they are showing improvement every day,” said Kettler. “This is a tough league this year and it is good for us to get exposed to this level of competition.”