By James Williams | Staff Writer
MEN’S TENNIS
The Riverside City College Tigers men’s tennis team opened the season with a victory over the all-freshman lineup that make up the Glendale Community College Vaqueros in a 9-0 shutout on Jan. 31.
Tigers’ freshman Danny Garcia won his first career college match against Santiago Segovia, 6-3, 6-1.
Returning sophomore and No. 1 singles player, Jordan Gobatie, won his match against Gaspar Macalutas, 6-4, 6-3.
Gobatie was also the No. 1 player for the Tigers last season as a freshman.
Gobatie also won his doubles match with teammate Ulises Banos against Segovia and Phillip Lam, 8-5.
Banos won his singles match against Oscar Lam, 6-1, 6-3, to complete a sweep against the Lam Brothers. Phillip Lam also lost his doubles match against Tigers No. 4 Gustavo Carvalho, 6-2, 6-4.
In the final singles match of the day, the Tigers No. 6 singles player Eliott Moreno defeated Vaqueros No. 6 singles player Stephen Joharry, 6-1, 6-4 to keep the Tigers perfect in singles play.
In the Tigers second match of the season, they swept the Grossmont Community College Griffins in singles play 6-0. Led by No. 1 Gobatie and No. 4 Carvalho, the Tigers had very little trouble defeating the Griffins in singles play. Gobatie defeated Emmanuel Corvera 6-0. 6-1. Carvalho defeated Ignacio Alvarado 6-1, 6-0.
The Tigers only lost one match in doubles to go 2-1 and 8-1 overall in route to defeating the Griffins.
Gobatie and Aliaksandr Pesniak paired up for the first time and won convincingly against Corvera and Jason Voss 6-1, 6-0.
“Freshman Eliott Moreno started the Tigers off with a dominating performance in the No. 5 spot, 6-0, 6-3” said head coach Jim Elton.
The Tigers are currently 2-1 after a shutout against Division I UC Riverside Highlanders, 7-0 on Feb. 7.
Hugo Martinez / Special to Viewpoints
WOMEN’S TENNIS
The Riverside City College Tigers women’s tennis team has won its first three games to open the season.
“We currently have not lost a match, we are 3-0 in nonconference,” Tigers head coach Nikki Bonzoumet said.
The team’s most recent win against the Cerritos College Falcons, 8-1.
The team’s only loss came in a match against Falcons’ No. 1 player Sam Judan, who defeated Tigers No. 1 Briana Bowers, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
The Tigers went on to win the next eight matches against the Falcons to take the overall victory. In doubles play the Tigers swept the Falcons 3-0 led by tandem Nikki Vorhees and Alecs Comahig who defeated Sam Judan and Rianne Hagan 8-1.
“We just hope to keep improving and hopefully gain more confidence as we play more,” Bonzoumet said.
The team also opened its season with a win over the Imperial Valley College Vaqueros.
After No. 1 singles player Briana Bowers lost the opening singles match to the Vaqueros No. 1 Sofie Tavitian, 6-1, 7-5; the Tigers went on to sweep the Vaqueros in the last five singles matches and all three doubles matches.
The Tigers also won their second game of the season against IVC to increase their overall record to 2-0 on the season.
The Tigers swept the six singles matches along with the three doubles matches. The Tigers only allowed a total of three points combined between the three doubles matches.
“Next week’s match against Mt. San Anonio College should be a good test for us as it looks as though they have a strong team,” Bonzoumet said.
