COD Men’s Tennis will face Foothill Owls in CCCAA State Championship match

The COD Men's Tennis team is back in the CCCAA State Championship match facing the NorCal Champs, the Foothill Owls on April 24th at 1 p.m. at the Pierpont Racquet Club in Ventura.

The Roadrunners return to the State Title match for the first time since 2011, taking on a difficult Foothill Owls squad from scenic Los Altos Hills.

The 2019 CCCAA Dual Team Tennis Regional Championship bracket is located HERE

The Roadrunners secured the #3 seed in the CCCAA SoCal Regional and will face the #1 seed from Northern California, where the Owls finished the season with an undefeated 6-0 record in Coast Conference play.

Returning this season after an 18-year hiatus from the Roadrunners, Guy Fritz made a triumphant homecoming and secured the #3 seed, where the COD Men's Tennis team ended the 2019 season undefeated in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) play. The last time Desert hosted a Regional Quarterfinals match was last season, in 2018.

Fritz, who led the Roadrunners from 1990-2000, guiding Desert to seven CCCAA State Titles and a National Championship in 1998, directed this year's squad to a 15-1 overall record and a 12-0 conference record, wrapping up the regular season winning their final nine matches. They were rewarded with the #3 seed in the Southern California Regional Playoffs.

Desert will face off with a Foothill team which finished the regular season with a record of 15-1, the Owls ended the 2018 season in second place in the Coast Conference with an overall record of 8-4 and a Conference record of 4-2. The Owls started the season 2-1, and have since won 13 consecutive matches. The Owls are coached by veteran head coach, in his 18th season at the helm, Dixie Macias.

The Roadrunners do share one common opponent with Foothill in 2019. Both teams faced off with NCAA D3 University, UC Santa Cruz, with Desert defeating the Banana Slugs, 5-3 on March 25th and the Owls falling to UCSC, 6-3 on February, 23rd.

Predicted match-ups in doubles may feature:

#1: Boyd / Kuperstein (COD) vs. Khamphilath / Kojima (FC)
#2: Vogt / Gomez Romero (COD) vs. Vigdorchik / Tokuyama (FC)
#3: Rogovski / Hosain (COD) vs. Ip / Maeda (FC)

Predicted match-ups in singles may feature:

#1: Kalman Boyd (COD) vs. Evan Gazikian (FC)
#2: Alex Kuperstein (COD) vs. Ryo Kojima (FC)
#3: Manfred Vogt (COD) vs. Nick Khamphilath (FC)
#4: Saar Rogovski (COD) vs. Taiki Maeda (FC)
#5: Sebastian Gomez Romero (COD) vs. Yu Tokuyama (FC)
#6: Syed Hosain (COD) vs. Levi Vigdorchik or Justin Ip (FC)

Men's Tennis brings along a list of heavy hitters to the match on Wednesday, including undefeated sophomore Kalman Boyd (Solana Beach Fusian Academy) has rolled through the SoCal Regionals, winning every singles and doubles match in front of him. In addition, Boyd remained undefeated throughout all of 2019, in both Conference and non-Conference singles and doubles play, where he finished the season 13-0. Boyd was named the CCCAA/CCCSIA Athlete of the Month for the month of February 2019. You can read that article HERE

Freshman Alex Kuperstein (Palm Desert H.S.) has also taken wins throughout the SoCal Regionals, winning all of his singles and doubles matches. Kuperstein has also gone undefeated throughout 2019, going 15-0 in both Conference and non-Conference singles and doubles play.

Freshman Manfred Vogt (Mexico City (MX) Universidad Panamerican Preparatoria) has two wins in three doubles matches, in the 2019 Playoffs, notching his only singles win in the first round of the SoCal Regionals. In the regular season, Vogt went 13-0 in singles play, going 9-1 in doubles play.

Freshman Saar Rogovski (Rosh HaAyin (ISR) Menachem Begin) has won both of his completed singles matches in the SoCal Regionals and is 2-1 in doubles play. In the regular season, Rogovski went 13-2 in singles play, going 8-5 in doubles play.

Freshman Syed Hosain (Abu Dhabi (UAE) GEMS American Academy) has performed well in the 2019 Playoffs, winning a doubles match in the first round of the SoCal Regionals and securing a huge singles win in the SoCal Championship at Cerritos. In the regular season, Hosain went 8-1 in singles play, going 6-2 in doubles play.

In the regular season, freshman Sebastian Gomez Romero (Palm Desert H.S.) went 7-3 in singles play, going 8-2 in doubles play and freshman Nicolas Garcia (Palm Desert H.S.) went 7-6 in singles play, going 7-2 in doubles play.

Alternate is freshman Andrew Limon (Indio Shadow Hills).

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For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.

Information, Photo & Story provided by COD Sports Information.