Glendale Community College men’s tennis’ state run ends
Prospects appeared bright for the Glendale Community College men’s team entering the second day of the 117th annual Ojai Invitational.
But things turned bleak in a hurry for the Vaqueros in the event that serves as the state tournament at the junior college level.
Glendale freshman Christian Hess suffered a back injury in a singles match Friday, forcing him to retire in singles and doubles.
It played a big part in Glendale’s state run derailing.
“He had been saying that his back had been hurting and we had a trainer look at him,” said Glendale Coach Bob MacKay, whose team finished second in the Western State Conference and qualified for the Southern California Regionals. “He wanted to go back out there in singles and doubles and he gave it a try, but it just wasn’t worth it. It’s not worth him hurting himself even more.
“We had a good run throughout the season and our guys picked up a lot of great experience in that kind of environment.”
Hess, a North Carolina product who captured the conference’s singles championship, began Friday with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Petrus Botha of Cypress in a round-of-32 match. Hess then faced Cody Duong of American River in a round-of-16 tilt. Duong won the first game before Hess retired.
Hess paired up with Chris Pope in a round-of-32 doubles match against Michael J. Park and Andrew Tran of Saddleback. Park and Tran won the first set, 7-5, before Hess had to retire.
Also for Glendale, Pope suffered a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss to Bruno Duarte of Cerritos in a round-of-32 match. Arin Meserkhani and Kevin Orellana of Glendale lost, 6-3, 6-0, to Irvine Valley’s Wyatt DeMulling and Chris Politiek in a round-of-32 match.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
