COLLEGE UPDATE: Former Glendale Community College standout Alex Sarkissian concludes excellent season for Pepperdine tennis
The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.
Alex Sarkissian (Glendale Community College, 2011) Pepperdine University tennis junior: After a wildly successful and undefeated sophomore season for Glendale Community College in 2011, Sarkissian moved on to play for the Waves.
After redshirting his first season at Pepperdine, Sarkissian put together a phenomenal rookie year.
His season concluded in the NCAA Singles Championship tournament, making it all the way to the final 16 before falling Friday to Tulsa’s Japie De Klerk in a dramatic match, 7-6 (7-0), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Urbana, Ill.
The loss put a close to a season in which Sarkissian earned Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. All-American status as a singles player in addition to spots on the All-West Coast Conference second team in both singles and doubles for the Waves. Sarkissian posted an overall 23-6 record his junior season.
Ranked 62nd in the ITA singles poll coming into the NCAA tourney, Sarkissian defeated No. 34 Hunter Reese of Tennessee, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in the first round and put on his best performance and pulled off his biggest upset in the second round, sweeping No. 10 Ryan Lipman of Vanderbilt, 6-4, 6-2.
As a team, No. 12 Pepperdine advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament and lost to No. 2 Georgia, 4-2, on May 18, finishing the year with a 27-6 record. Sarkissian lost a hard-fought match to Nathan Pasha, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Sako Chapjian (Glendale Community College, 2011) Lewis-Clark State baseball senior: The Hoover High graduate, who was a standout at GCC and also played for the Glendale Angelenos, is wrapping up his college career with his fourth stop — two junior colleges, two four-year schools.
Chapjian and Lewis-Clark, an NAIA school renowned for producing Major League Baseball players, are still going strong, having staved off elimination and advanced to the NAIA World Series semifinals with a dramatic 3-2 win over The Master’s College on Tuesday afternoon in Lewiston, Id.
Chapjian came off the bench and went 0 for 1 as a pinch hitter.
Seventh-seeded Lewis-Clark, which hosts the series, scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the ninth for the comeback.
Lewis-Clark (44-14) will play against a team to be determined and at a time to be determined in the semifinals on Wednesday. (For information when pairings are released, visit www.naia.org.)
Chapjian has now played in 28 games with 11 starts and is hitting .306 with 19 hits in 62 at-bats, having tallied 12 runs, 14 runs batted in and has eight extra-base hits for a .525 slugging percentage.
In Monday’s 9-5 World Series win over Northwood, Chapjian was also used off the bench in the designated hitter spot and went one for three with a run, a RBI and was also hit by a pitch.
Chris Stroh (Glendale Community College, 2011) Westmont baseball junior: The former Glendale Community College speedster and Crescenta Valley High graduate concluded his junior campaign with some excellent numbers.
The outfielder hit .310 on the season, notching 58 hits in 187 at-bats, playing in 45 games, while starting 44. Stroh led Westmont with 18 doubles and added a pair of triples and home runs, notching a .460 on-base percentage. The fleet-footed former Falcon also added eight stolen bases out of 10 attempts.
Westmont lost its last three games of the season, all to Golden State Athletic Conference winner and NAIA World Series qualifier The Master’s College. Stroh had a hit in his final game of the season and went two for 12 in the series, as Westmont struggled, scoring just two runs in three games. However, it came on the heels of a pair of wins over Arizona Christian in a conference doubleheader on April 20. Stroh went a combined six for nine with three runs, an RBI, a pair of doubles and a home run in the doubleheader.
Westmont finished the year at 24-26 and 14-22 in conference.
Meghan Luera (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, 2010) Occidental College softball junior: Luera and Occidental wrapped up their season on April 20 with a doubleheader sweep of Pomona-Pitzer.
Luera started at third base in both games, drawing two walks — one each per game — and a run in the opener.
Occidental finished the season 14-26 overall and 5-23 in the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
Luera played in 37 games, hitting .196 with nine runs batted in, eight scored and three stolen bases. Her best game of the season likely came April 19 in a 7-5 win over Whittier College in which she went 2 for 2 with a run and a double.
Jessica Ferri (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, 2009) Harvard softball senior: Ferri wrapped up her playing career with the Crimson this season.
Ferri’s last start of the season came April 27 in a 7-1 Ivy League loss to Dartmouth. It was one of three straight losses to end the season for Harvard, which went 22-22 on the season and 12-8 in the Ivy League.
Ferri, however, went one for three with a double and a run scored in the defeat to Dartmouth.
A former All-Area and All-Mission League standout, Ferri’s best game of the season came March 24 in a 5-4 loss to Syracuse. Ferri went three for four with two RBI, a run scored and her only home run of the season.
For the year, Ferri played in 37 games and hit .185 with 10 hits in 54 at-bats. She added eight walks for a .323 on-base percentage. She had three runs and two RBI, while also making two appearances in the circle with a 10.50 earned-run average over 1 1/3 innings.