Pirate men's doubles team advances to Sweet 16 at state tourney
OJAI -- Several members of the Orange Coast College men's tennis team made their way up to Ojai for the California Community College Men's Tennis State Tournament last weekend and Coast picked up several victories along the way.
Leading the way for the Pirates was the doubles team of Elmer Van Butselaar and Peter Hariri, who went four rounds deep into the playoffs before finally falling in the Round of 16 to the No. 3 seed, Foothill College's Rihards Feldmanis and Felipe Resende, 6-3, 6-2. The OCC duo earned a first-round bye before topping Santa Rosa's Mathias Burlingame and Adison Mowforth, 6-1, 6-0 in the second round and topped College of the Desert's Sam Cohen and Stephane Biboum on a walkover due to an injury.
Van Butselaar earned a first-round bye in singles play before beating Reedley College's Patrick Smith, 6-2, 6-2 before falling in Round 3 to third-seeded Branden Lum of Foothill College, 6-1, 6-4.
The doubles team of Anthony Thai and Philip Vu earned a 6-4, 2-6 (11-9) opening round win over Grossmont's Lawrence Liu and Patrick Timmons before losing to sixth-seeded TJ Auckland and John Foote from American River, 6-0, 6-1.
Another OCC doubles state qualifier, Chris Chiu and Darren Dinh, lost in the opening round to San Diego Mesa's Scott Wheeler and Luka Stanivukovich, 6-4, 6-1.
