With rain drizzling down and the score tied at 4-4, Warriors tennis players Yasuto Miyawaki and Jonathan Fisher wanted to make sure they closed it out in the second set against Mt. San Antonio College.

The team’s battled back and forth for the lead, matching serves and backhands as the court turned into a frantic game of Pong on steroids until finally it was match point for Miyawaki and Fisher. 

With the Warriors taking the crucial fifth point, Fisher capitalized on the team’s lead, taking the final point and Fisher could only let out a scream of joy as they locked up their doubles match 6-3, 6-3.

The point secured a 5-4 victory against the Mounties last Thursday. 

“It was the deciding factor,” coach Steve Van Kanegan said. “It came down to that; whoever won that particular match would win the team match.” 

The Warriors will look to carry the momentum from the win to the South Coast Conference tournament, beginning Tuesday.

“I’m expecting good competition,” tennis player Atilla Lassu said. “A lot of these guys are really, really good and you definitely can’t underestimate them. “It’s going to be fun, but also tough.”

The top three players for the match were Fisher, Miyawaki and Andrew Sarawasi, scoring points that helped the Warriors edge the Mounties.

“It feels great. I love it,” Fisher said. “At the beginning of the season, I was kind of 50/50 for winning and now lately I have been winning. It feels good especially and winning it for EC was a bonus.”

The team took the season series against the Mounties, 2-1.

“It turned out very favorably, we ended up winning 5-4 and going into doubles,” Van Kanegan said. 

Warriors Lassu and Sarawasi defeated Marcelo Bautista and Eric Kao, 6-0, 6-3 and Anthony Espinoza and Steven Sato lost to Benson Kim and Peter Kung, 6-3, 6-3 in the other double matches.

“Doubles looked pretty good today, we have struggled the last few times,” Van Kanegan said. “A little sloppy, but today especially our No. 2 team was more together, more energized and more consistent.” 

It was the team’s second straight victory after sweeping Long Beach City College, 9-0, last Tuesday.

 “Jon and Yasuto played a great set of doubles and Andrew played very well in singles and doubles,” Van Kanegan said. “Jon played a great match in singles; those were our key player’s (today).” 

Even with the win, Van Kanegan said there is still plenty of room for improvement.

    Van Kanegan said the tournament is expecting 18 single players and approximately 12-15 doubles teams.

“Top six single player’s and top three double’s team, that’s all we got,” Van Kanegan said.

Van Kanegan said the players are really looking forward to the SCC tournament.

“I’m expecting a couple of our player’s and a couple of our doubles teams to do well,” Van Kanegan said.

EC is currently 8-5 and secured second place in the SCC.

“(Our season’s) been up-and-down, we had a couple of matches where I felt we could have been more consistent and more enthusiastic and there were other matches where we come ready to play,” Van Kanegan said. “Some days the players have it and some days they don’t, we have had a good season, but definitely up-and-down in terms of consistent, energy and enthusiasm.”