Torcaso stuns 2-seed at state tournament

The Saddleback men's tennis team had three doubles teams and two singles players in action on Thursday at the state championships held in Ojai and Ventura.  The Gauchos received a handful of great performances, including a big upset in singles play from Chris Torcaso.

The freshman from San Clemente opened the tournament on Thursday by beating College of the Desert's Brian Johnson in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.  The win put Torcaso in a match with the No. 2-seed in the tournament in Folsom Lake College's Daniel Alves, in what was supposed to be a formality with Alves moving on to the round of 16.  Torcaso had other ideas, pressing Alves to a third set before stunning one of the tournament favorites, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.  He will now face the No. 15-seed Tomas Bernardes from Grossmont College in the round of 16 at 11:00 AM this morning. 

In addition to winning at singles, Torcaso teamed with Ryan Fabre in doubles to defeat the No. 16-seeded doubles team in the tournament.  Torcaso and Fabre raced past the Chabot College duo of Sayed Amir and Noah Moeckelmann, 6-2, 6-0 to advance to the round of 16 on Friday where they will face the team of Alexy Prokopchuk and Marcos Silvestre from Cerritos College.  Prokopchuk and Silvestre are the No. 2-seed in the tournament. 

In addition to Torcaso's win at singles, Fabre was a first round winner against Fresno City's Jade Yang (6-2, 6-0) before falling in the round of 32 to Cerritos' Alexy Prokopchuk (6-2, 6-1).