Glendale stopped in opener
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — For weeks, the members of the Glendale Community College men’s tennis team have had their sights set on competing against Santa Barbara City College.
In recent seasons, Santa Barbara has proven to be a worthy opponent for Glendale college, which pulled out a pair of wins against Santa Barbara last season en route to placing second in the Western State Conference and advancing to the Southern California Regionals.
Glendale college and Santa Barbara wasted little time getting to know each other during a conference opener for both teams Tuesday afternoon. It proved to be a bit one-sided.
Santa Barbara won five singles sets to secure a 7-2 victory against host Glendale college.
Glendale college (3-2) lost more than just a match Tuesday. They lost No. 4 singles player Stephan Mamann for the season after he injured his knee during a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Kyle Lewis. In addition, sophomore singles Paul Nagapetyan appeared to hurt his right hand during his 7-5, 6-1 loss against Alex Zazove.
“We learned about ourselves today playing against a pretty good team,” Glendale college Coach Bob MacKay said. “You learn more from losing than you would winning.
“It’s not how you start, but how you finish. We have got to get healthy, and we have a player or two who needs more playing time.”
Santa Barbara (2-2) wasted no time getting started.
It received singles wins from Nikolay Ivanov (6-0, 6-3) against Joey Tresierras, Cameron DeAragon (6-2, 6-3) against Dinusha Wijesuriya and Zack Scott (6-1, 6-3) against Chaz Hall.
Sophomore Emanuel Haug of Glendale college picked up a 6-3, 6-3 singles win against Regis Fastrez. Haug worked with Tresierras to earn an 8-6 doubles win against Ivanov and Fastrez.
Veteran Santa Barbara Coach Don Lowry, who got doubles wins from Zazove and Scott and Quentin Richelle and DeAragon, said playing some tough nonconference matches helped Santa Barbara prepare for Glendale college in the first of two head-to-head meetings.
“We had a decent preseason, and we never did have a full lineup,” Lowry said. “Coming down here to Glendale and getting a win was huge for us.
“All three doubles matches could have gone either way. We got off to good starts in singles and we won a lot of our first sets.”
The two teams will meet again March 16 at Santa Barbara.
“I expect another tough match against them the next time,” MacKay said.
Glendale college will next compete at 2 p.m. Tuesday in a conference road match against L.A. Pierce College.
