Vaqueros snag conference awards

GLENDALE — Glendale Community College men’s tennis Coach Bob MacKay and women’s Coach Bob Donaghy are both in agreement about the Western State Conference — it’s arguably the top conference in Southern California and possibly in the state.

Trying to knock off elite teams like Ventura College and Santa Barbara City College is tough enough. Having their players scrap for every point on the court can also leave an impression on other coaches in the conference, who have to make adjustments on the fly to try to keep Glendale’s top players at bay.

While neither Glendale squad qualified for the Southern California Regionals this season, they still had their share of talent that was recognized.

Five Glendale men’s singles players and two doubles teams recently received all-conference accolades, as did one Glendale women’s singles athlete and a doubles team.

The highest honor went to the men’s No. 1 doubles team of sophomores Emanuel Haug and Joey Tresierras, who secured co-first team conference honors with Nikolay Ivanov and Regis Fastrez of Santa Barbara City College.

“The big thing is that it’s a very tough conference,” said MacKay, whose team finished 6-11 and 3-5 in conference. “They are right where they belong and they had a good chemistry playing together.

“Emanuel was coming back from a knee injury. Then him and Joey came together and were dominant, especially toward the end of the season.”

Haug and Tresierras advanced to the round-of-16 at the Southern California Regionals at Cal State Northridge on April 30. Haug and Tresierras finished up at 7-10 overall and 5-3 in conference.

The Vaqueros No. 3 doubles tandem of sophomore Dinusha Wijesuriya and freshman Garn Sangsuriyakul earned second-team honors.

The duo went 3-1 in conference despite not playing together the first half of the season because of various reasons.

“They hadn’t played competitively for quite a while,” MacKay said. “They just continued to develop their games in the second half.”

In singles, Tresierras earned second-team honors at No. 1, while Haug snagged second-team honors at the No. 2 spot.

In addition, Paul Nagapetyan was honorable mention at No. 3, Wijesuriya was honorable mention at No. 4 and Chaz Hall received honorable mention at No. 6.

Tresierras finished 6-10 overall and 3-4 in conference in singles. Haug went 7-10 and 5-3, while Nagapetyan went 7-7 and 1-5. Wijesuriya finished at 5-6 and 3-4 and Hall went 7-9 and 4-4.

“Joey had a tough season at singles because it’s so tough when you have to compete against those players from Ventura, which won the state championship, and Santa Barbara,” MacKay said. “So, that made him battle even harder.

“Haug was able to battle back from the surgery and he finished the season up strong. Paul had a phenomenal season in which he had all sorts of injuries. Dinusha was an incredible talent who is one of the best strikers on the team and Chaz came back, but just needs to be a bit tougher in closing out sets.”

On the women’s side, sophomore Minelli Ebrahimi earned a pair of postseason honors, as she received honorable mention at No. 3 singles and teamed with sophomore Sarah Aguilar to secure honorable mention at No. 1 doubles.

Ebrahimi went 5-5 in singles during conference competition. Ebrahimi and Aguilar combined to go 6-4 in doubles.

“It’s a difficult conference from top to bottom,” said Donaghy, whose team finished 4-11 and 2-8. “We had our team banquet and I passed out the awards to them and it meant a lot to each of them.

“They both played well from the base line.”