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 successive postseasons.
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.