The Pirates' men's tennis team did not fare well Friday taking on top-ranked Cerritos College on the road. The Pirates took their first loss of the year, falling to the Falcons 7-2. Priyank Soni and Augustin Lestelle produced VC's only victories of the day at Nos. 2 and 4 singles, respectively.
Ventura (9-1, 6-0) got off to a slow start, falling in all three doubles matches by 8-2 margins. They had a difficult time recovering in singles play. Soni won his No. 2 match 6-3, 6-7, 10-7, and Lestelle prevailed at no. 4, 6-4, 6-1. Adrien Etiemble extended the second set of his No. 3 singles match to a tiebreaker, but still fell in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6. Solal Cherqui managed to win five games in the second set of his loss at No. 1, but Ventura could get no closer in the other match-ups.
The Pirates will next travel to the North/South Challenge in Fresno on Friday and Saturday March 16 and 17.
Ventura 2, Cerritos 7
Doubles
1. Soni/Etiemble (VC) lost to Hunter/Castro (Cerr), 8-2
2. Cherqui/Dunan (VC) lost to Prokopchuk/Marcos Paulo Silvestre (Cerr), 8-2
3. Lestelle/Perdigao (VC) lost to Rico-Altozano/Lee (Cerr), 8-2
Singles
1. Solal Cherqui (VC) lost to Kent Hunter (Cerr), 6-2, 7-5
2. Priyank Soni (VC) def. Victor Castro (Cerr), 6-3, 6-7, 10-7
3. Adrien Etiemble (VC) lost to Alex Prokopchuk (Cerr), 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
4. Augustin Lestelle (VC) def. Biel Roca Carreras (Cerr), 6-4, 6-1
5. Rafael Dunan (VC) lost to Dario Rico-Altozano (Cerr), 6-4, 6-3
6. Rodrigo Perdigao (VC) lost to Kwangeun Lee (Cerr), 6-2, 6-2