IVC Men's doubles players Grove and Pardo win State Championship
The Irvine Valley men's tennis team had its usual success at the famous Ojai and the 3C2A Championships over the weekend.
The Irvine Valley men's tennis team had its usual success at the famous Ojai and the 3C2A Championships over the weekend.
The IVC freshman doubles team of Nick Grove and Luciano Pardo won the title on Sunday.
The duo defeated Glendale's Adam Ridaoui and Lance Morgan, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, in the final at Libbey Park.
The entertaining match was played with short rallies consisting of no more than four shots, with power being the decisive factor.
Grove and Pardo, the top team out of the Orange Empire Conference, helped IVC finish with a team record of 11-2 overall and 8-0 to win the conference.
Irvine Valley reached the So. Cal. Regional semifinals as a team before losing, 5-2, to Glendale.
The team had tons of great moments over the weekend in singles and doubles at Ojai.
In singles play, Irvine Valley's Grove reached the semifinals. He defeated Keisuke Ariga, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before falling in three tough sets to Glendale's Sebastian Junghanns, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in the semis on Saturday.
In doubles for IVC, Grove and Pardo got into the final with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Gavin Sonntag and Enrique Silveira before taking down Ridaoui and Morgan in the championship match in three sets.
Grove and Pardo join the likes of Javier Callejo (state singles champion in 2016 and 2017), Bruno Figlia and Scott Paz (state doubles champions in 2016), Valentin Baize and Maxime Rumeau (state doubles champions in 2015) and Arthur Bellegy (state singles champion in 2022) and doubles champion with Kiichi Ishida also in 2022 as part of a special group of IVC men's tennis players to win titles at Ojai.
Release by Brent Shaver, Irvine Valley