Vaqs shut down, 5-0

GLENDALE — Once they arrived in Palm Desert for the Southern California Regionals on Tuesday, the members of the Glendale Community College men’s tennis team didn’t have much time to bask in the fine season that got them there.

Faced with windy conditions and stiff competition, the Vaqueros were thoroughly overmatched by College of the Desert, the No. 1-ranked team in the state, 5-0.

“[The Roadrunners] are a good team and I have no qualms, our guys battled pretty good,” veteran Glendale college Coach Bob MacKay said. “They were a better team than we were today.”

Glendale college No. 4 singles Paul Nagapetyan won his first set in the sixth match of the day, 7-6, and was up in the second in an effort to get Glendale college on the board, but once College of the Desert won its fifth match, the day was over.

Glendale college finished the regular season 14-7 and 8-2 in the Western State Conference. The Vaqueros qualified for the playoffs despite being without Emmanuel Haug (knee) for the second half of the year and Rony Yeghnazary for the first.

Ryan Stanbury also battled a herniated disc for much of the season.

“We’ve had a lot of things happen, but the most important thing is that they’ve hung together and you go with the cards you’ve been dealt,” MacKay said. “I think we had a pretty good season with the cards we were dealt.”

There are still several opportunities ahead for individual players from Glendale college to extend their seasons, with the Western State Conference playoffs beginning in Santa Barbara on Friday and the Ojai Tournament, set for April 23.

Yeghnazary and Nagapetyan will compete in singles at Ojai, while the tandems of Ryan Stanbury and Joey Tresierras and Nagapetyan and Marco Gortinski will compete in doubles.