Costa Mesa greets collegians for tennis tournament

Costa Mesa Tennis Center to host tournament for local and visiting college players, starting today.Some of the West Coast’s top collegiate tennis players will make Costa Mesa their home for the week as the Costa Mesa Tennis Club plays host to the Costa Mesa Intercollegiate Classic.

The tournament opens today and runs through Friday. The field includes Southern California natives, players from Southern California colleges, and those looking for a preseason tournament.

Of particular interest to the Newport Mesa area are seven players with local ties.

Newport Beach native Kaes Van’t Hof is the top seed in the men’s bracket. The USC sophomore, who won the Pac-10 doubles title with Jeff Kazarian, has a first-round bye.

Garrett Snyder, a Corona del Mar High grad, has a 2:30 p.m. match today against Cal’s John Pettit. Snyder transferred to USC after playing two seasons at the University of Texas.

UC Irvine’s Shimpei Suzuki meets Westmont College’s J.B. Schiller in a first-round match at 1 p.m. today.

On the women’s side, there are three matches today involving locals. Corona del Mar grad Taylynn Snyder, a sophomore at USC and the sister of Garrett Snyder, faces Cal State Northridge’s Canna Furata at 2:30 p.m.

Orange Coast College’s Jessica Rice also has a 2:30 match, meeting Boston College’s Gia Nafarrete. Michelle Esquivel, Rice’s former doubles partner at OCC and now at Concordia University, has a first-round bye.

Corona del Mar grad Juliette Mutzke takes on Whittier College’s Kristin Friedersdorf at 3 p.m. Mutzke is a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara.