Photo by Bobby R. Hester
Photo by Bobby R. Hester

Riverside Outlasts Saddleback in Conference Dual

The Riverside City College men's tennis team worked their way into the top three in the Orange Empire Conference (OEC) standings last week with a victory over Fullerton last week. They looked to remain in the upper echelon by facing off against the Saddleback College Gauchos on Tuesday afternoon at home. After taking the doubles by the score of 2-1, Riverside worked to win three singles contests thus earning a solid 5-4 win.

It was a nail-biting matchup of top teams in the conference, but a shakeup in the doubles pairings paid off for Head Coach Tom Yancey.

Sophomore Ayrton Aviles and freshman Gleb Mityurin teamed up for the first time this season as the top pair and seamlessly settled in. They earned an 8-4 victory. Sophomore tandem Miles Clark and Maechel Hanna were slotted as the number two team and worked towards an 8-3 triumph.

Mityurin acted as the top singles player and did so successfully by earning a two-set victory with scores reading 6-3, 6-0. Clark followed as the number two singles player and hauled in a 7-5, 6-4 win. Aviles backed the both of them with a 6-4, 6-2 win as the number five singles player.

Riverside continues conference action at home on Thursday, March 14 as they play host to the Orange Coast College Pirates at 2 p.m.