Three Irvine Valley men's tennis players will be continuing their careers at a four-year college, Laser coach Ross Duncan announced.
Thomas Gibson, Gabriel Barazetti and Theo Braune are all headed to San Diego Christian in Santee in the San Diego area.
Gibson and Barazetti, who were both freshmen, helped IVC record the best season in school history this past spring. Irvine Valley won its first ever Orange Empire Conference title, hosted its first playoff match, won the Southern California regional final and reached the State Championships final match.
Irvine Valley fell in the final to defending champion Fresno City, 5-2, in late April at Ventura College. Fresno City won its 58th-straight match.
IVC ended with a record of 17-3 overall with two of those losses coming to four-year schools.
Gibson, from Australia, was a key member of the Lasers this past season. He had a record of 8-3 in singles and was 10-4 in doubles overall on the season.
He was 6-1 in singles in dual match play.
Gibson made the round of 16 in the conference tournament in singles and also reached the quarterfinals of the conference tournament and reached the round of 32 at the State Championships in doubles with partner Jack Divorty.
Barazetti was a reserve player for IVC this past year. He is originally from Brazil.
Braune was a two-year player for IVC. He played during the 2012 and 2013 seasons and sat out this past year.
He was part of the IVC team in 2013 that finished second in conference play and set the stage for the special 2014 campaign.
Braune had record of 12-6 overall in singles for the Lasers in 2013, playing primarily in the No. 4 position for IVC.
He made the round of 16 in the conference tournament in singles.
Braune also had a record of 6-3 in doubles for the Lasers.
In 2012, Braun was 13-3 in singles primarily in the No. 5 and No. 6 positions for IVC. He also had a record of 7-2 in doubles.
The trio of IVC players are headed to a brand new San Diego Christian program. The school is starting men'sd and women's tennis in the spring of 2015.
San Diego Christian is an NAIA school that competes in the Golden State Athletic Conference.
