Irvine Valley downs Mt. SAC, 5-0, to make regional final

Irvine Valley's men's tennis team swept through another opponent and moved on to its third CCCAA Southern California Regional Team Playoff Final in a row.

The Lasers won the first five matches against Mt. San Antonio for a 5-0 victory in a second-round playoff contest on Tuesday at home.

It was IVC's second straight 5-0 win in the playoffs.

Irvine Valley, seeded No. 1 in So. Cal. and the defending state champion, advances to play No. 2 Cerritos on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Irvine Valley.

The two teams met earlier this season at Cerritos with IVC winning 8-1 in a match that was a lot tighter than the final score indicated.

It was Cerritos' lone loss to a community college team this year. The Falcons (24-3) beat Ventura, 5-2, on Tuesday at home to move on to the regional final.

Saturday's Irvine Valley and Cerritos winner will earn a berth in the CCCAA State Championship match in Ventura on April 20.

Irvine Valley finished second in state two years ago and won it all last year.

The Lasers improved their record to 19-2 on Tuesday with the win over Mt. SAC.

Irvine Valley won all three doubles matches to start.

The teams of sophomore Sam Cohen and freshman Javier Callejo, sophomores Bruno Figlia and Scott Paz and freshman Gavin Lynch and sophomore Kevin Pham each earned 8-3 victories.

Then in singles, freshman Juan Navarro (No. 5 singles) and Paz (No. 6 singles) each earned 6-0, 6-0 wins to close out the overall victory. Figlia also had a match point in his No. 4 singles match when the contest was halted.

The match took just 1 hour and 45 minutes overall.

The victory was Irvine Valley's 14th in a row.

The team's last defeat came Feb. 18 against four-year ranked Division 2 school Point Loma Nazarene. Both of IVC's defeats this year have come to four-year schools. 

Irvine Valley 5, Mt. San Antonio 0 

Singles

1) Sam Cohen (IVC) vs. Ron Kan (MTSAC) unfinished

2) Javier Callejo (IVC) vs. Erik Martinez (MTSAC) unfinished

3) Octave Bellet (IVC) vs. Kenny Sakata (MTSAC) unfinished

4) Bruno Figlia (IVC) vs. Jeffrey Alidina (MTSAC) unfinished

5) Juan Navarro (IVC) def. Ismael Rodriguez (MTSAC), 6-0, 6-0

6) Scott Paz (IVC) def. Phillip Beniga (MTSAC), 6-0, 6-0 

Doubles

1) Cohen/Callejo (IVC) def. Martinez/Alidina (MTSAC), 8-3

2) Figlia/Paz (IVC) def. Kan/Sakata (MTSAC), 8-3

3) Gavin Lynch/Kevin Pham (IVC) def. Rodriguez/Kimlong Phan (MTSAC), 8-3