Men's Tennis

Men's tennis team, Callejo, Paz and Figlia ranked No. 1 in state

Men's tennis team, Callejo, Paz and Figlia ranked No. 1 in state

The final Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association California state rankings for the 2016 community college season were announced recently and Irvine Valley was a deserving No. 1.

Irvine Valley also had three of the top-11 ranked singles players and three of the top-10 ranked doubles teams.

The Lasers won their second straight CCCAA State Championship, defeating American River at Ventura College in April in the title match.

IVC, which won its first three playoff matches in the Southern California Regionals by the score of 5-0, defeated American River from Sacramento in the title match, 5-1.

Irvine Valley won two of three doubles matches and the first three singles contests to earn another championship.

IVC finished the season with a 21-2 record.

The Lasers, playing in their third consecutive state final, won their last 16 matches of the season and completed a perfect season against community college competition (both defeats came to four-year universities).

The rest of the top 10 in the state rankings were Cerritos, American River, Ventura, Foothill, Mt. SAC, Diablo Valley, Orange Coast, Saddleback and Riverside.

Making up the team were players Octave Bellet, Javier Callejo, Sam Cohen, Bruno Figlia, Jack Fryer, Mark Hardebeck, Rafael Lourenco, Gavin Lynch, Juan Navarro, Scott Paz, Kevin Pham, Flavien Raveau, Amir Safi, Tony Selim, Sameer Soni and Ryan Van de Water.

Cohen was named the Orange Empire Conference player of the year. Callejo won the state singles title and the team of Figlia and Paz won the state doubles crown.

Paz and Raveau both recently signed with Eastern Washington University to play in the fall.

The team was coached Ross Duncan and assisted by Zoran Korac Jr. and Matt Harris.

In the singles rankings, Callejo was ranked first. Cohen was third, Bellet was 11th, Figlia was ranked 12th, Raveau was 18th and Navarro was 48th.

Callejo finished with a singles record of 21-0 this season and defeated defending state champion Hiro Koyanagi of Ventura in the state final.

And in doubles, the team of Figlia and Paz was No. 1 with the team of Cohen and Callejo second. The team of Lynch and Pham were ranked 10th.

Figlia and Paz had a record of 11-0 in doubles this past season. The duo defeated teammates Cohen and Callejo in the state title match.

It was the second year in a row that Irvine Valley had two doubles teams reach the state final.

Irvine Valley College provides this web space for the use of its faculty, staff and other representatives of the college for the purpose of furthering the educational goals of the institution and enhancing the academic experience of its students. This is the official web site of Irvine Valley College Athletics. The data, statistics, photos, rosters and schedules used on this web site were gathered by the IVC Sports Information Office. Other web sites containing information about Irvine Valley College Athletics not within the official college web site may not be accurate. Questions or comments about this web site can be directed to bshaver@ivc.edu

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