Knights Advance to Regional Semifinal With 5-0 Victory Over Riverside

The San Diego City College men's tennis team has advanced to a regional semifinal after dispatching No. 5 Riverside 5-0 in Tuesday's first round match. The Knights, who have made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons have now made it past the first round in two straight postseasons.

The No. 4-seeded Knights (14-3) had a great start to the day with victories in all three doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead. The No. 1 team of Nik Speshilov and Andrew Suver took down Riverside's No. 1 pair of Carlos and Rafael Rullan, 8-3.

In No. 2 doubles, Carlos Robles and Eduardo Castillo defeated Luca Braan and Felicien Adam, 8-5. The duo of Brian Espinoza and Sebastian Castaneda got past Riversides' Anant Bhika and Maurice Nolan, 8-2 to complete the doubles sweep. 

Then in singles action, No. 2 Suver earned a quick 6-0 and 6-2 win over Riverside's Braan to bring the Knights within one point of winning the dual match. Every other singles match was tight, but Robles came through for City with a 6-4 and 6-3 win over Carlos Rullan at the No. 4 spot to clinch the first round playoff victory for the Knights.

Because it was a playoff, all the remaining matches were halted as soon as the Knights got to five wins.

San Diego City will now advance to play a road match at No. 2-seed Ventura College (17-0) in a regional semifinal on Tuesday, April 12 at 2 p.m. The winner of that match will move on to play the winner of No. 1 College of the Desert vs. No. 3 Irvine Valley in a Southern California regional final on April 16.