The Pirates' men's tennis team continued their strong play Saturday at the Western State Conference Singles and Doubles Championships at the VC Tennis Center. Ventura qualified six players for the CCCAA State Championships at The Ojai in singles while placing three players in the WSC semifinals. Meanwhile, VC also advanced three doubles pairs to the semifinals with another duo also in contention for The Ojai.
In singles, top-seed Solal Cherqui easily qualified for The Ojai with a 6-2,6-2 victory over the No. 15-seed from Santa Barbara before advancing to the semifinals with a love and love win over the No. 9-seed from Los Angeles Pierce College.
Meanwhile, on the bottom half of the bracket, the Pirates proved to be spoilers. No. 7 Adrien Etiemble defeated the No. 11 seed from Glendale before upsetting the draw's No. 3-ranked player from Santa Barbara to move to the semi's. No. 6 Priyank Soni defeated the No. 13 player from Santa Barbara 6-2, 6-2 before upsetting the No. 2-seed from LA Pierce to earn his place in the final four.
No. 12 Rafael Dunan earned his place at The Ojai with an upset win over the No. 4-seeded opponent from Bakersfield, 7-6, 6-3, before falling to the No. 5-seed from LA Pierce.
The Pirates' No. 16-seed Rodrigo Perdigao fell in a super-tiebreaker to the tournament's No. 2 seed from LA Pierce before winning his backdraw match against the No. 13-seed from Santa Barbara, 6-1, 6-1, qualifying him for the state championships at the end of the month.
Finally, No. 10 Augustin Lestelle dropped his round of 16 match to the No. 5-seed from LA Pierce, 6-4, 6-4, before punching his ticket to state in the backdraw by default.
In doubles play, No. 1 Soni and Etiemble easily moved past the No. 8-seed from LA Pierce, 8-2, and into the semifinals. Their opponents will be very familiar as unseeded Perdigao and Lestelle upset the No. 4-seeded team from Santa Barbara. The two VC doubles teams will play later in the week to determine the participants in the WSC championships.
The No. 3-seeded duo of Cherqui and Dunan swept past the No. 6 group from Bakersfield before falling in the semifinals to the No. 2-seed from LA Pierce in a marathon 6-0, 2-6, 12-10 match that ended at dusk.
All three of the Pirates' doubles semifinal teams qualified for The Ojai, as did Alexander Martin and Jakob Rinschen. They lost in the quarterfinals to LA Pierce's No. 2-seed, 8-5, but heir appearance in the round of eight qualified them for state. Ventura is allowed three entries in doubles at The Ojai, and they will be determined at a later date among the four qualified pairs.
Soni, Etiemble and Cherqui will play in the WSC singles semifinals on Friday April 13 at 11:00 am, with the championship match scheduled for approximately 4:00pm. The doubles final featuring either Soni and Etiemble or Perdigao and Lestelle will begin at approximately 3:00 pm. All of those matches will be at the VC Tennis Center.
Additionally, the Pirate men will begin the CCCAA SoCal Team Dual Playoffs on Tuesday April 10 against an opponent to be determined, most likely at the home.
The CCCAA State Championships at The Ojai will be held April 26-29.
See Updated 2018 WSC Tennis Championships Men's Singles Bracket
See Updated 2018 WSC Tennis Championships Men's Doubles Bracket