Irvine Valley men's tennis headed to third state final in a row

Irvine Valley's men's tennis team continued its dominant run through this year's California Community College Athletic Association Dual Team Regional Playoffs on Saturday afternoon.

The Lasers, seeded first in Southern California, defeated their third straight opponent, 5-0, at home.

This time it was No. 2 Cerritos.

The win means Irvine Valley will be playing in its third straight CCCAA Dual Team State Championship next Wednesday at Ventura College at 12 p.m. The Lasers will play American River, which is the top-seeded team from Northern California. It beat Foothill, 5-2, on Saturday.

IVC was the runner-up at state to Fresno City in 2014.

Irvine Valley defeated Foothill, 5-2, last season to earn the first state title in program history.

The Lasers improved their record to 20-2 overall with the win over Cerritos. They have won 15 matches in a row and the only two losses this season came to ranked four-year schools.

IVC defeated Cerritos, 8-1, at Cerritos on Feb. 4 in a match that was tougher than the final score indicated.

In that match, the Lasers won all three doubles matches.

And they did the same thing on Saturday when it counted most.

The sophomore team of Scott Paz and Bruno Figlia got Irvine Valley out in front with a 8-3 win over Cerritos' James Zhang and Aleks Trifunovic on the No. 2 court.

The duo of sophomore Kevin Pham and freshman Gavin Lynch won the final two games to pull out a 8-6 victory at No. 3 doubles over Augustin Lombardi and Mark Antoniuk.

And then IVC's top doubles team of sophomore Sam Cohen and freshman Javier Callejo earned a 8-5 win over Oleksandr Krasnov and Nikita Katsnelson to give Irvine Valley a commanding 3-0 lead heading into singles.

Irvine Valley needed just two more wins to wrap up its third regional title in a row.

The first victory came from Figlia on the No. 5 court as he handled Zhang, 6-1, 6-3.

Then freshman Octave Bellet closed out the match with a 7-6, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles over Cerritos' Trifunovic.

Cerritos, which won the South Coast Conference title, ended an impressive year with a record of 24-4 overall. 

Irvine Valley 5, Cerritos 0 

Singles

1) Sam Cohen (IVC) vs. Oleksandr Krasnov (CERR), unfinished

2) Flavien Raveau (IVC) vs. Nikita Katsnelson (CERR), unfinished

3) Javier Callejo (IVC) vs. Agustin Lombardi (CERR), unfinished

4) Octave Bellet (IVC) def. Aleks Trifunovic (CERR), 7-6, 6-2

5) Bruno Figlia (IVC) def. James Zhang (CERR), 6-1, 6-3

6) Juan Navarro (IVC) vs. Eliot Dota (CERR), unfinished 

Doubles

1) Cohen/Callejo (IVC) def. Krasnov/Katsnelson (CERR), 8-5

2) Scott Paz/Bruno Figlia (IVC) def. Trifunovic/Zhang (CERR), 8-3

3) Kevin Pham/Gavin Lynch (IVC) def. Lombardi/Mark Antoniuk (CERR), 8-6