It was déjà vu all over again for Attila Lassu and Andrew Sarawasi.

The doubles tandem of Lassu and Sarawasi had to face Oliver Andrzejczuk and Torsten Keil-Long of Cypress College again, after losing to them in the Ojai Tournament.

Although Lassu and Sarawasi could not pull out a victory, they still qualified for the State Championships and will head to Fresno on Thursday for the two-day Friday and Saturday event.

“It’s the top 16 double teams from the southern regional and northern regional, each doubles team from the top 16 teams in the state (show up at the State Championships),” Van Kanegan said.

Lassu and Sarawasi will be the only players to represent EC in Fresno as all the other singles players fell short of qualifying.

The doubles team duo of Yasuto Miyawaki and Jonathan Fisher lost in the first round, but Lassu and Sarawasi won the first two matches.

The wins enabled them to qualify, even though they lost the third match to the duo from Cypress College.

“In singles, I lost in the first round,” Lassu said. “It was a really long match. I t went three sets and I lost, so I was kind of disappointed, but than we made up for it in doubles and we won two rounds and we lost in the quarterfinals to the same team from Cypress College. Losing to them is more motivation to do better at states coming up, so I’m looking forward to that.”

The team still has a lot of room for improvement for its last stand of the season.

Lassu and Sarawasi have worked hard this week to try to get ready for the states competitions, Van Kanegan said.

“We are going to work on returning serves and being faster during the matches,” he said. “We are going to leave today whether they are ready or not.”

Van Kanegan still believes in his duo and thinks they will make some noise in state this weekend.

“I think they have a good chance to win at least one match,” Van Kanegan said. “We’re down to the top 16 in states, so I think they have a good chance to make it to quarterfinals and they will certainly make it to the semifinals or possibly into the finals, but it will take hard work.”