Men's tennis team takes control of OEC race with big, road win

Men's tennis team takes control of OEC race with big, road win

Irvine Valley's men's tennis team scored its biggest win of the season so far Tuesday on the road.

The Lasers kept their record perfect with a tight, 5-4 win over rival Riverside on the road.

Irvine Valley took control of the Orange Empire Conference standings with the victory.

IVC improved to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in conference.

The Lasers start the second round of OEC play on Thursday at Saddleback at 2 p.m.

Irvine Valley won two of three doubles matches to start with sophomore Devon Kashishian and freshman Alyan Ashraf winning, 8-4, at on the first courtt and sophomore Kiichi Ishida and sophomre Harold Santana coming out on top, 8-4, at the No. 2 spot.

The Lasers battled in singles, but Riverside won three of the first five matches.

It went down to the last match of the day to decide things. And Ashraf defeated Enrico Recchia, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 for the deciding victory at No. 3 singles.

Ishida at No. 1 (6-0, 6-4), and freshman Rudra Pathak at No. 6 (6-2, 6-4) also won singles matches for the Lasers. 

Irvine Valley is back in action on Thursday at Saddleback at 2 p.m. It starts the second round of conference play.