Vaqueros men’s tennis team begins season on right note
GLENDALE — After spending the past several weeks practicing against one another in preparation for the season, the members of the Glendale Community College men’s tennis team finally broke a sweat Tuesday afternoon.
With its season pushed back a few days because of inclement weather, Glendale college, featuring an all-freshmen lineup, took to the court and passed its first teat with a 9-0 nonconference home win against Cypress.
“It’s a brand new team and it’s a challenge for each of them being freshmen,” said Glendale Coach Bob MacKay, whose team was originally slated to begin its season Friday with a nonconference home contest against Mount San Antonio College, but the match was postponed because of rain. “They needed to finally be able to get in a match.
“They’ve played in a lot of tournaments and practiced a lot leading up to the season. It’s a whole new game to get back into the swing of things as a team because every point is critical from the first to sixth spots ion the lineup.”
Gaspar Macalutas led the surge for the Vaqueros against Cypress (0-1). Macalutas swept his two sets as the No. 1 singles player without dropping a game against Aehjaii Panis.
He then worked with Dat Le to record an 8-0 doubles victory against Panis and Brian Negrete.
Macalutas said he wanted to find out early how he would fare partaking in his inaugural collegiate match.
“I was pretty nervous at first, but it was good to get out there,” Macalutas said. “I had to play my game and stick to my strategies, like staying at the base line and grinding out points.
“That’s when I know I’m on top of my game. After a couple of weeks of practicing, I think we all wanted to get back out there and get into a rhythm. I feel good about our team and I like our lineup.”
Le earned a 6-0, 6-0 win against Negrete.
Santiago Segoria posted a 6-0, 6-1 win against Elliott Cho. Glendale’s Phillip Lam registered a 6-3, 6-0 victory against Omar Saldivar. Oscar Lam of Glendale earned a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Brandon Sena. The Vaqueros also got a 6-0, 6-1 win in doubles from Stephen Joharry against Brian Hahn.
Segovia and Phillip Lam teamed up for an 8-1 victory against Cho and Saldivar. Yepram Chavdarian and Frank Chicco of Glendale worked together to register an 8-2 win against Sena and Hahn.
MacKay, whose team finished 6-11 and 3-7 in the Western State Conference last season, said the Vaqueros responded to their first test.
“For their first match together, they did fine,” MacKay said. “Every time you step out on to the court, you look to see what they can do better.
“What I saw [Tuesday] was another building block in place.”
Glendale will next participate in a nonconference road match at 2 p.m. Thursday against Riverside.
