UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Tennis in Ojai: Love at First Sight
The UC Irvine tennis teams are readying for their annual pilgrimage to Ojai, and the mention of it stirs the thoughts of Doreen Irish and Greg Patton, Irvine’s longtime coaches.
Every year, the little town southeast of Santa Barbara is the site of a tennis festival that includes the Big West Conference and Pacific 10 championships, as well as community college and high school tournaments.
Irish, coach of the Irvine women’s team, loves to see the banner across the town’s main street welcoming all the players for a weekend of tennis.
Patton, who grew up in Santa Barbara and coaches the men’s team, sums it up this way:
“Aesthetically, it’s just awesome. It’s the epitome of summertime: warm weather, long days and great tennis. Everybody in tennis will be there.”
In Patton’s eyes, the Anteaters, despite an uncharacteristically poor 11-10 record, are a favorite along with defending champion Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara, which has won seven of the past nine Big West titles. Irvine, No. 24 in the nation, is the only ranked team in the Big West.
The Irvine women, in a bit of a change this year, could enjoy more than just another pleasant stay in Ojai. Irish says her team has a shot at winning.
“Our chances are real good, in addition to about five other schools,” Irish said. “There’s lots of parity this year.”
UCSB would be the closest thing to a favorite in the women’s bracket--and the Gauchos beat Irvine last week, 8-1.
That score might be deceptive, though, because of a change in the tournament format. Instead of a team-against-team bracket, the women’s tournament is reverting to its old format, with brackets in individual flights, and a point system to determine the team title.
“If someone from, say, Cal State Fullerton beats out a Santa Barbara girl, that could help out,” Irish said. “Funny things can happen.”
For once, Irvine is poised to take advantage of opportunities. The team is 15-6 this season, and is 5-2 in Big West dual matches.
Irvine’s top player is Ali Yoshimoto, but its highest-seeded player is Cory Crigger, seeded second at No. 4 singles. She has yet to play the only higher-seeded player in her flight, Janelle Barr of Nevada Las Vegas, because Crigger was out with injuries suffered in a car accident when the teams met.
The new format could work to Irvine’s advantage this year, but Irish says it is not one that she and most of the other coaches favor. The change was made by a vote of athletic directors.
The format makes it imperative to start strongly. Players who lose the first day are banished to the consolation bracket, where point values for victories are only half those in the winners’ bracket.
“The first day is going to be critical in terms of loading up on points,” Irish said.
More Men’s Tennis: Despite a season in which Irvine made a rare disappearance from the national rankings before reappearing at No. 24 this week, Patton is optimistic, and says the team has made strides in recent matches.
One example: San Diego State beat Irvine, 5-1, this season, but the Anteaters reversed the near-sweep last week with a 5-1 victory.
Irvine will gear up for the conference tournament with a nonconference match against eighth-ranked Pepperdine today at the Irvine tennis stadium.
Brett Hansen-Dent won a conference title at No. 2 last year, but is seeded fifth at No. 1 singles this year. He has fallen to No. 53 in the national rankings. Four Big West players are ranked above him, led by Santa Barbara’s David Decret, who is No. 12.
Irvine’s Brett Stern, who won the Big West title at No. 5 last season, also has taken on tougher competition, and is seeded sixth at No. 2.
The bottom of the singles lineup looks strong, with three players seeded first in their flight--No. 4 Marco Zuniga and No. 5 Fred Bach, both freshmen, and No. 6 Neel Grover.
The doubles teams are particularly strong. Aaron Stolpman and freshman Chris Tontz are seeded first at No. 3, and the other two teams are seeded second.
Patton’s big concern is the health of Charles Wheeler, who plays No. 3 singles and teams with Grover on the defending champion No. 2 doubles team. Wheeler has had back trouble, and Patton says he is doubtful.
Mike Powell, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Daley Thompson and Gail Devers are only four of the 39 Olympians entered in the UC Irvine Track & Field Invitational Saturday and Sunday at UCI track stadium.
One interesting twist is that not all the athletes will compete in the event they are famous for. Powell, who broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old world record in the long jump last year, is entered in the 200 meters and is not expected to jump.
The women’s competition is Saturday, and the men compete Sunday. Field events both days begin at 10 a.m., with the first running event at noon each day. Many college athletes will compete, but there is no team competition.
Traci Goodrich, who qualified for the NCAA championships in the 10,000 meters at the Mt. San Antonio College track meet last year, finished in 34 minutes 18 seconds at Mt. SAC Friday. That time meets the provisional qualifying requirement for the NCAA championships, but is short of the automatic. Vince O’Boyle, director of track and field at Irvine, says the time will be good enough to put her in the NCAA field.
Thursday, Goodrich will run the 5,000 at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Irvine’s distance medley team of Clay Biddle (2,000 meters) Sean O’Leary (800 meters), Dustin James (400 meters) and Kevin Harris (1,500 meters) will compete Friday at the Penn Relays.
Buffy Rabbitt, the former Irvine runner, competed at Mt. SAC and will be at the Irvine Invitational Saturday. Rabbitt is trying to qualify for the Olympic trials in the 3,000. Though she has not reached the automatic qualifying standard of 9:03, O’Boyle says her best time--a 9:11.89 at the TAC meet last year--will be enough to make the field.
“I don’t think a lot of people in the U.S. are going to reach that time,” he said, referring to the automatic standard. “She’s right there. I think she’ll get in.”
