Colleges:

What UC Irvine tennis legend Trevor Kronemann called one of the greatest moments in the school’s tennis history was actually a handful of minutes Sunday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

It wasn’t long after Kronemann’s men’s team clinched its first Big West Conference Tournament title since 2005, its first in three seasons under Kronemann, that the former four-time Anteater All-American said he heard a roar that signaled the women’s title-match victory over Long Beach State on a nearby court.

“It happened kind of simultaneously,” Kronemann said of the men’s 4-0 win over top-seeded Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the women’s 4-1 verdict against top-seeded Long Beach State. “We had just clinched and we heard a roar from other side of the stadium. It was quite a moment. I’d say one of the three or four top moments in UCI tennis history. Mike [Edles, the women’s coach in his 14th season] winning his first and the men winning their 13th Big West title. It was a great day.”

And while both UCI teams entered the eight-team tournament as the No. 3 seed, neither coach was surprised to have come out on top.

Both not only avenged losses to their final opponents, they did the same in the semifinals (the women eliminating UC Santa Barbara and the men topping Pacific).

“I knew we had the players to pull it off,” said Edles, a Costa Mesa resident. “I’m just glad we did it.”

Kronemann expressed similar confidence in his group.

“Going into the season, I knew I had a very, very talented young team,” Kronemann said. “I felt like we could make some rumblings throughout the country. We got off to a strong start, and I think the guys got a little ahead of themselves and may have thought they were invincible. We had some injuries and then we had a stretch of about our last eight or 10 matches where we just couldn’t click.

“But going into the conference tournament, I was still confident we could have a good showing. I figured we’d need to play our best tennis those three days. Every day, we got a little better. We played well Saturday against Pacific and against Cal Poly, we played one of our better matches of the season.”

The title triumph over the Mustangs, where Kronemann coached before returning to his alma mater, at which he was a standout on four conference tournament champions from 1987 to 1990), was a diametrical contrast to the ’Eaters 5-2 home conference loss to Cal Poly on April 10.

“I think if you asked the players, just about all of them would say that the first Cal Poly match was our worst of the season,” Kronemann said. “If you asked them all about Sunday’s match, I think they’d just about all say that was our best match of the season.”

The latter occurred without UCI’s best player, Kronemann said, as sophomore Fabian Matthews, a Corona del Mar High product, was sidelined with an elbow problem.

“It’s a great testament to our team that we had a great player on the sideline, just a thoroughbred, and his teammates still got it done,” Kronemann said.

Matthews, who Kronemann said has the same injury baseball players have Tommy John surgery to repair, could still be ready for the NCAA Tournament, for which pairings are announced today.

Edles said his players were more than ready to end some title-match futility against Long Beach State.

“To beat [the 49ers] in the final definitely makes it sweet,” said Edles, who also dealt with various injuries during the regular season, including a lingering wrist problem for sophomore Stephanie Hammel, who had been playing No. 1 singles.

“Stephanie played No. 3 singles [over the weekend] and she still isn’t 100%,” Edles said. “But we were fortunate to get all our players back from injury. I had such high hopes before the season started that this could be one of the best team I’ve ever had. But we struggled with injuries throughout the season.”

Edles said he received congratulatory messages, via the phone, text or e-mail, from former players and others who all, in some way, had helped the program get to this point.

“I’ve been inundated with messages and spent most of [Monday] responding, which has been fun,” Edles said. “There are many scars that a lot of us still carry. This victory represents kind of a healing process.”

Edles said he and his family, including daughter Ellie, an Estancia High product who had a strong season as a freshman at UC Davis this spring, are among those who truly savored the championship.

“Ellie didn’t get to see the final, because her team had already left,” Edles said. “But we talked by phone after the match. She saw a lot of those Long Beach State [title-match losses] and, growing up, she was very close to a lot of my teams. She was kind of like the team mascot.”

Edles said he had his own unique way to appreciate the crown.

“It has been quite a ride, a long ride,” he said. “[Sunday] night, I took the trophy home with me. I put it on the kitchen table, because, when I woke up [Monday] morning, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”