Pirates wrap up season with strong showings at Ojai
OJAI -- Several members of the Orange Coast College men's tennis team earned spots at this year's California Community College Athletic Association's State Championship and the Pirates battled to the very end to cap off a strong season for the Pirates.
Freshman Tokunosuke Takahashi advanced to the singles Round of 32 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Modesto's Bryce Purser before falling to Irvine Valley's Simon J. Guillin, 6-1, 6-4.
Teammate Ryu Miyake qualified for the Round of 64 with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Bakersfield's Vitor Ikeda and pushed the No. 4 seed, Foothill's Wallace Lau to a third set before falling, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
In doubles, Takahashi and Miyake joined forces and advanced to the Round of 32 with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Cabrillo's Sean Elliott and Monte Roth. In their next match, they went up against top-seeded Nathan Eshmade and Amadi Kagoma and the Pirate twosome nearly pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament. After dropping the opening set, 6-0, Takahashi and Miyake evened the match with a 6-4 win, forcing a super tiebraker. From there, Eshmade and Kagoma were pushed further, but held of to win, 10-6 to advance.
OCC's other doubles team, Brian Dao and Tony Wright opened their tourney run with a 6-3, 6-2 win over San Diego City's David Salazar and German Ziella in the Round of 64. Their run was halted by a 6-2, 6-2 loss to American River's Adam Duong and Lovedeep Singh.
