Beavers go 2-1 Against SoCal Competition at Pfister Cup

3/17/23-3/18/23

ARC: 5                   Bakersfield: 4

ARC: 7                   Glendale: 2

ARC: 2                   Ventura: 7

Overall: 6-3         Conference: 1-0

The Beavers participated in the second annual Pfister Cup, hosted by Bakersfield College. The event matches up some of the top teams from Northern California against some of the top teams in Southern California. In their first match, the Beavers played the hosts, Bakersfield College. ARC took a 2-1 lead into the singles, but lost 3 of the first 4 singles matches to finish, and had their backs against the wall with 2 matches remaining. Julian Bilbao closed out his match at #6, which left Jason Hom, at #5 to be the deciding match. After splitting sets, Hom played a very clean 10-point tiebreak, and clinched the victory for the team. On Saturday, 3/18 the Beavers played a doubleheader, facing off first versus Glendale, followed by a matchup against Ventura. Against Glendale, ARC again took 2 of the 3 doubles, and this time they backed it up with 5 singles victories. Singles highlights included straight set victories for Shane Timmons (#2), Parker Perdue (#3), Julian Bilbao (#5), and Patrick Wall (#6). The final dual match of the event pitted SoCal #2, the Ventura College Pirates, against the NorCal #1, ARC. The teams split the first 2 doubles matches, and the #3 match came down to a tiebreak. The Pirate team won the tiebreak, meaning the Beavers would head into the singles down 2-1. The singles matches were competitive and physical, but ARC fell short in 5 of the 6 matches, and lost by a final score of 7-2. Spencer Hill was the lone Beaver singles victor, winning at #4 by the score of 7-5, 3-6, 12-10. The tournament was a great way to prepare for the remainder of the season for the Beavers, getting to see the level of the top SoCal teams. They performed very well, especially in the doubles, and they did it without #1 player, Ravi Nelson, playing the singles because of an emergency dental procedure the day before the event. Standout performers on the weekend included Spencer Hill, who went 5-1 in singles and doubles, and Ravi Nelson, who despite the dental procedure went 3-0 in doubles. Shane Timmons and Julian Bilbao were also significant contributors, each winning 2 of their 3 singles matches. Next up for the Beavers are back to back matches against Folsom Lake College to close out conference play for the season.