NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament : USC Has UC Irvine’s Number With 5-2 Victory

The NCAA quarterfinal men’s tennis match between USC and UC Irvine Sunday had more to do with capability than ability.

USC’s Jonas Wallgard, healthy for the first time this season, won his match and Irvine’s Richard Lubner, suffering from a groin pull, lost his as USC defeated Irvine, 5-2, at the University of Georgia in Athens.

It was USC’s third victory over Irvine this season, all by the same score.

Wallgard had arthroscopic knee surgery in February and missed a month of the season. After returning, he suffered a sprained ankle in April. But he has recuperated in time for the national championships. Wallgard, playing No. 5 singles, defeated Irvine’s Shige Kanroji, 7-5, 6-2.

“That was really one of the keys,” said Dick Leach, USC coach, in a telephone interview. “We needed him to play well, and he has the last two days.”

USC, ranked third in the nation, defeated Southwest Louisiana, 5-1, in the round of 16 Saturday. Irvine, ranked fifth, defeated Arizona State, 5-1, to set up the showdown between two of Southern California’s better teams.

But Irvine lost any chance of upsetting the Trojans in the No. 3 singles match pitting Lubner against USC’s Byron Black.

Lubner defeated Black twice during the regular season, but, could not overcome the muscle pull, and lost, 6-3, 7-5.

Lubner was leading in the first set, 2-1, and was ahead in the fourth game when he suffered the injury while running cross court and reaching for a ball.

The match was stopped to allow a trainer to examine Lubner. After a short delay, he was taped and he decided to continue playing. But, he was hobbling and was no match for Black.

“I was trying to talk him off the court but he wanted to keep playing,” said Greg Patton, UC Irvine coach. “It was a real turning point in the match. Here it was the most important match in the history of Irvine, and we have it decided in part by an injury. You hate for something like that to happen but that is just the nature of athletics.”

USC won the singles, 4-2, and clinched the victory at No. 1 doubles. Eric Amend and Scott Melville of USC rallied to defeat Mike Briggs and Mark Kaplan, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. The tiebreaker was decided, 7-1. The other two doubles matches were called once USC clinched the match.

In other singles matches, Melville defeated Kaplan at No. 1 singles, 7-6, 6-0, and Trevor Kronemann of Irvine defeated John Carras, 7-6, 6-4, at No. 2. Amend defeated Briggs, 6-3, 7-6, at No. 4. and Mike Cadigan of Irvine defeated Scott Brownsberger, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, at No. 6.

“We knew that Irvine was a really good team,” Leach said. “The key was for us to win at No. 3 and No. 5, and when we were able to do that I knew we would be OK.”

USC advances to play Stanford, the tournament’s top-seeded team in the semifinals today.

Leach is not intimidated.

“We’re playing well right now and I think we are in the best shape we have been in all season,” he said. “I took the team to Palm Springs for a boot camp for a week to get ready for this. We worked hard for the week in 100-degree heat to get ready. I hope it’s really hot and humid tomorrow (today). I know we are ready for it.”

Stanford survived the defeat of its No. 1 singles player to beat seventh Kentucky, 5-2.

Kentucky’s top player, Greg Van Emburgh, defeated David Wheaton, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, but Stanford won four of the other five singles matches and its No. 3 doubles match to gain the semifinals.

Pepperdine’s No. 1 and No. 2 players both lost as sixth-seeded Michigan upset the fourth-seeded Waves, 5-3.

The Wolverines won the top four singles matches. Dan Goldberg beat Robby Weiss, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, at No. 1, and Ed Nagel defeated Andrew Sznajder, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 2.

At No. 3, Malivai Washington beat Pepperdine’s Craig Johnson, 7-6, 7-6, and No. 4 Jon Morris defeated David Wells-Roth, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.

In the final quarterfinal match, second-ranked LSU defeated eighth-seeded Georgia, 5-3. LSU’s Jeff Brown beat the Bulldogs’ Al Parker, 6-1, 7-5, at No. 1 singles.