Sasha Hedberg lost a close men's tennis match on Saturday in the CCCAA State Championship quarterfinals at the Ojai Racquet Club.
The SBCC sophomore, the No. 5 seed from the South, fell to No. 3 Sasha Krasnov of Cerritos 6-4, 7-6 (4). Hedberg had his serve broken in the last game of the first set. Hedberg jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set before having his serve broken twice as Krasnov rallied to tie it 5-5. Hedberg was down 6-5 and love-30 but rallied to tie it at 6.
Krasnov jumped ahead 5-1 in the tiebreaker en route to a 7-4 win. Hedberg finished his final community college season with an 11-3 record.
"It was a tight first set," said coach Randy Moharram. "I was very proud of Sasha and his performance. He competed at a very high level and left everything on the court. He plays with a lot of confidence and determination."
The Vaqueros went 6-6 in their first year back after a two-year hiatus and finished second in the WSC with a 6-2 mark.
"We had a slow start in pre-season play (going 0-4)," noted Moharram. "We very easily could have checked out at that point but the guys make a commitment to each other to see the struggles through and work to improve. We put together a string of wins in conference and finished second behind a good team.
"To have this type of experience from an 'all new' team is a success story in in my mind and very valuable lessons learned for our freshmen coming back next season. A big thank you to all of the community, supporters and especially the SB Tennis Patrons for creating this opportunity. We're back!"