Tennis title tops for ‘Eaters
Barry Faulkner
Basketball regrouped with a winning season and baseball added another
30-win campaign, but it was tennis, which captured its first Big West
Conference championship since 1993, that topped the list of UC Irvine
men’s team accomplishments in 2004-05.
Seniors Brian Morton and Rye Kashiwabara were named first-team
All-Big West in singles and doubles and helped lead Coach Steve
Clark’s Anteaters to their first NCAA tournament appearance since
1997.
The Anteaters defeated University of the Pacific, 4-3, in the
conference tournament final to improve to 14-8, before falling at
Pepperdine in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Victor Lamm was named Freshman of the Year in the Big West and
also garnered second-team all-conference recognition.
Coach Pat Douglass’ basketball team rebounded from an 11-17
campaign in 2003-04 to record a 16-13 mark that included one win in
two games of the Big West Conference tournament.
The Anteaters rebounded from consecutive losses at USC and UCLA to
post a season-high five-game winning streak that included a road
victory over a Santa Clara squad that had earlier upset eventual
national champion North Carolina.
Another big win was a 97-81 conference triumph at Cal State
Fullerton, which made a strong late-season run that included a pair
of wins in the National Invitation tournament.
UCI finished fifth in the Big West and defeated Idaho in the first
round of the conference tournament, before being eliminated by Cal
State Northridge in the quarterfinals.
The team’s lone senior, 6-foot-8 center Greg Ethington, was named
the tem’s Most Outstanding Player, while junior guards Ross
Schraeder, Jeff Gloger and Aaron Fitzgerald also distinguished
themselves throughout the season.
Schrader finished with a team-high 12.9 scoring average that
included 79 three-pointers. His three-point shooting accuracy of
43.9% ranked 11th nationally.
Gloger became the school’s career steals leader with 167, while
Fitzgerald averaged a conference-leading 5.2 assists per contest.
Postseason news included the loss of eight-year assistant coach
Todd Lee, who became head coach at Kentucky Wesleyan, as well as the
recent reconstructive knee surgery undergone by Gloger, who tore his
ACL in workouts in late May.
The addition of first-year coach Dave Serrano to a baseball squad
that returned several talented and experienced players from the group
that made the school’s first NCAA Division I regionals appearance in
2004, led to great optimism heading into the 2005 campaign.
But injuries to senior pitchers Glenn Swanson and Jimmy Alstot,
and a lack of consistency in other areas, led to a disappointing
fifth-place finish in the Big West.
The Anteaters finished 31-25, 10-11 in conference, and missed out
on a returtn trip to the regionals.
Senior second baseman Brett Dalton, who hit a team-leading .376,
was the lone UCI player named first-team all-conference.
Junior pitcher Chris Nicoll, the staff ace, and junior catcher
Mark Wagner were second-team all-conference honorees and led a cast
of teammates either drafted or signed as a free agent by Major League
teams.
Nicoll was a third-round pick of the Kansas City Royals, while
Wagner was picked in the ninth round by the Boston Red Sox.
Dalton, fellow seniors Nash Robertson and Swanson, as well as
junior Matt Anderson were also drafted while seniors Steve Schroer
and David Kennedy signed professional contracts as free agents.
Water polo coach Ted Newland, in his 39th season at the helm, made
headlines by topping the 700-career victory plateau last fall.
Newland’s squad finished 16-14 and was fourth in the Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation, upping the prolific poolside sage’s career record
at the school to 714-345-5.
Senior Rick Merlo, who scored 62 goals, was a first-team
All-American and was also a first-team All-MPSF selection.
Junior Dreason Barry and senior Dan Noon were second-team All-MPSF
honorees.
Junior diver Anton Slobounov defended his Big West Conference
titles in the one- and three-meter springboard, giving him six
conference crowns, tops in Big West history.
Slobounov was 10th on the one-meter board at the NCAA Zone E
regionals, after helping Coach Brian Pajer’s squad finish third at
the conference championships.
UCI, which wound up ranked No. 2 in the final CollegeSwimming.com
mid-major poll, was also paced by sophomore breaststroker Dan
Simonsen.
Simonsen defended his Big West title in the 100-yard breaststroke
and added a top finish in the 200 breaststroke to highlight
individual performers in the conference meet.
The 200 medley relay quartet of freshmen Eddie Erazo and Randall
Tom, as well as sophomores Simonsen and Eric Reilly, also won a
conference crown.
Junior hammer thrower Mike Beerer was also a Big West champion, by
virtue of his heave of 204 feet, 11 inches, second farthest in school
history.
Beerer was joined at the NCAA West regionals by junior 1,500-meter
runner Ricky Barnes and high jumper Jon Wratten.
Wratten cleared 6-11 to finish eighth, while Barnes finished
ninth, just missing a berth in the national outdoor championships.
The Anteaters track and field squad finished seventh in
conference.
Freshman golfer Garrett Sapp finished 77th at the NCAA West
regional, after earning first-team all-conference laurels while
helping the Anteaters tie for third at the Big West championships.
Sophomore Brian Edick was eighth at the conference championships
and earned second-team All-Big West accolades.
Sophomore Jayson Jablonsky was a second-team All-MPSF choice as
the volleyball team finished 9-20, 7-15 in the MPSF.
Sophomore Brad Evans was the conference Midfielder of the Year in
soccer as the ‘Eaters finished 7-13, 3-7 in the Big West.
Senior goalie Cameron Rossi, who along with teammates Sebastian
Galmarini, Sergio Rivera and Cameron Dunn were second-team
all-conference picks, finished with a UCI record 1.21 career
goals-against average, including a school-record 14 career shutouts.
Barnes was 36th to pace the cross country team, which finished
fifth at the Big West Conference championships and 11th at the
21-team NCAA West regional.
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