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.