UC Irvine Men Dominate to Win PCAA Tennis Championships Title

UC Irvine players won seven of nine events Sunday to successfully defended their Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tennis championship at New Mexico State’s University Tennis Center.

The Anteaters, ranked fifth in the nation, had 59 points, and second-place UC Santa Barbara finished with 40.

“I regard this as one of the four or five best conferences in the nation, so winning the title is very gratifying,” Irvine Coach Greg Patton said. “Hopefully, this will have a snowball affect for us going into the NCAA championships.”

Trevor Kronemann and Richard Lubner each won their singles divisions Sunday. Kronemann defeated Kip Brady of Santa Barbara at No. 2 singles, 7-6, 6-1, and Lubner won the No. 3 singles championship with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Scott Morse of Santa Barbara. Kronemann teamed with Mike Briggs to win the No. 1 doubles championship with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Morse and Steve Leier of UCSB. Lubner and Mark Kaplan defeated Santa Barbara’s Brady and Jeff Greenwald, 6-3, 6-3, to capture the No. 2 doubles title.

San Jose State’s Malcolm Allen and Santa Barbara’s Craig Ellison also won their respective divisions. Allen defeated Kaplan, 7-5, 6-2, to win in No. 1 singles and Ellison defeated Shige Kanroji of Irvine, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, to win in No. 5 singles.

“We not only want to be recognized as one of the predominate teams in the nation, but we also wanted to dominate the conference,” Patton said. “We basically did that.”

Irvine also won titles at No. 4 singles, as Mike Briggs defeated Fresno State’s Chris Gerety, 6-3, 6-1 and No. 6 singles, as Mike Cadigan defeated Santa Barbara’s Benson Curb, 6-1, 6-0. Cadigan and Kanroji won the No. 3 doubles title with a 7-6, 6-4 victory over San Jose State’s Paul Carbone and Jeff Neiman.

In the PCAA women’s championships at the University of Hawaii, Irvine finished fifth with 28 points. San Diego State finished first with 43 points, Nevada Las Vegas was second with 36, the University of the Pacific third with 35 and UC Santa Barbara fourth with 31.

In No. 6 singles final, Franchesca Heron of Santa Barbara defeated Stacey Cadigan of Irvine, 6-0, 6-4. In the No. 2 doubles final, Pami Agassi and Anna Castaneda of Nevada Las Vegas defeated Kathy Rose and Courtney Weichsel of Irvine, 6-3, 6-4.