Glendale College men’s tennis head coach Bob MacKay did not frown, shake his head or look at all disappointed in his team’s 6-3 home loss to Occidental on March 30. Instead, the eight-year coach displayed optimism over his players’ improvement.
The loss was Glendale’s fourth straight against four-year athletic programs, dropping them to 5-11 for the season and 2-5 in Western State Conference play. MacKay was pleased with his players’ efforts, however, and referred to his team’s previous meeting against Occidental Jan 28 where Glendale was beaten 8-1.
MacKay judged the loss as a sign of good things to come. “Every year Occidental’s got a great program,” MacKay said. “Last time we played against them we weren’t quite prepared, and now we played a lot better. It could have gone either way for us, but I’m just glad we’ve got more experience under our belts.”
His grounds for confidence might have something to do with getting players like No. 4 Dinusha Wijesuriya back from a stomach virus, and having others healed from injuries. This would also avoid the need for MacKay to keep moving players around the line-up.
Glendale’s top two players were felled by their Occidental counterparts. Emmanuel Haug, Glendale’s No. 1 player from Germany, was beaten 2-6, 3-6 by Occidental’s Victor Sowers. Haug’s teammate Joey Tresierras, although going the distance against Chris Wan, lost 6-4, 1-6, 5-10.
Glendale’s Chaz Hall and Paul Nagapetyan tied the overall score 2-2 after Hall posted a 6-4, 6-3 win against Rod Bandeira, and Nagapetyan beat Ben Harrington-Gilmore 7-6, 3-6, 10-8.
More losses came for Glendale however, as Gar Sangsuriyakul fell 0-6, 3-6 to Occidental’s Spencer Choy. Vaquero Mike Patatanyan was also beaten 2-6, 4-6 by Tyler Morgan, pushing Occidental’s overall lead 5-2.
“Gar played well, but I think he was out of his game a little,” Choy said. “Also I was feeling more energy from my legs.”
Despite Haug and Tresierras netting an 8-5 win against Wan and Sowers, the Vaqueros dropped the final two doubles matches.
Occidental’s Harrington-Gilmore and Bandeira worked together to post an 8-4 victory over Glenn Tolentino and Sangsuriyakul. Glendale’s Nagapetyan and Mike Astorian also fell to Choy and Morgan 8-3.
“I’m proud of the way our guys played today,” MacKay said. “They fought with intensity and determination. I think that if they keep playing at this same level with similar effort, we’ll start taking home wins.”
Glendale will next play in the Western State Conference tournament at Santa Barbara April 16 and 17.
