Irvine Valley's men's tennis team with a lot of new faces showed that they are the top team in the state yet again on Tuesday.
IVC, ranked No. 1 in the state by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, defeated No. 2 Riverside, 5-4, at home.
Irvine Valley won the singles, doubles and team title at the 3C2A State Championships last season in Ojai.
Most of those players from that squad for the Lasers are gone, but the fresh new group has tons of upside.
Irvine Valley improved to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Orange Empire Conference.
The Tigers slipped to 6-2 on the year and 0-1 in conference.
Irvine Valley led, 2-1, after some hard-fought doubles matches, but trailed, 3-2, after Riverside captured two singles contests.
But Irvine Valley pulled even after sophomore Bradley Yung won, 6-2, 6-1.
And the Lasers earned the outright team victory after freshman Philip Neuman won, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and freshman Steven Anderson earned a 6-3, 6-4 on court two.
Neuman trailed, 3-0, in the second set to Ronith Sreeram before battling back to close out the match and give IVC an overall 5-3 lead.
Irvine Valley plays another conference match on Thursday at Fullerton at 2 p.m.
And then the Lasers have a busy week next week, playing four matches. IVC hosts four-year Gustavus Adolphus on Monday at home at 2 p.m. and then travels to Orange Coast for a 2 p.m. conference match on Tuesday to start the week.
