Tennis Roundup : Long Beach Takes Over PCAA Lead

The Cal State Long Beach men’s tennis team had five players qualify for the singles championships and surpassed UC Irvine for the team lead in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. Tournament Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Peter Smith, Steve Cluse, Vince Horcasitas, Craig Miller and Mitch Bridge all advanced to today’s championship matches for Long Beach with semifinal wins. The 49ers have 27 points entering the last day of the tournament, followed by Irvine (24) UC Santa Barbara (18), Fresno State (15), San Jose State (13), Nevada Las Vegas (7), University of the Pacific (3) and New Mexico State (1). Fullerton and Utah State have no points.

Singles finals begin at 10 a.m. today, followed by doubles semifinals at noon and doubles championships at 2 p.m.

Smith, the top seed, will meet UCI’s Bruce Man Son Hing for the No. 1 singles championship. Man Son Hing reached the final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over David Kuhn of San Jose State. Julian Barham of Irvine beat Vinnie Giudicelli of Fresno State, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and will meet Horcasitas for the championship at No. 4 singles. Art Hernandez and Neil Amor also reached the finals of their flights for UCI.

Irvine’s doubles team of Barham and Darren Yates reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sean Cartwright and Joe Grief of New Mexico State. Hernandez teamed with Ken Derr to beat Laird Washburn and Brett Farrell of Utah State and advance to the semifinals in No. 3 doubles. Derr, the top seed in No. 2 singles, was upset by UC Santa Barbara’s Gus Andersen, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

In community college tennis action, Todd West of Saddleback College won the singles championship in the South Coast Conference Tournament Saturday at Orange Coast College with a 6-4, 6-2 win over teammate John Rusk and was named the conference’s player of the year. Saddleback won the team championship with 33 points. Santa Ana and Mt. San Antonio tied for second with 13.

Michael Racuia and John Rusk of Saddleback beat West and Dana Bozeman, 6-4, 6-3, to win the doubles title.

UC Irvine’s women defeated Hawaii, 5-4, in the PCAA women’s tennis action at Stockton.

The Anteaters split the singles matches, 3-3, with wins by No. 1 player Stephanie Rhorer, No. 3 Colleen Patton and No. 4 Haruko Shigekawa. UCI won in doubles, 2-1. Next for the Anteaters is UC Santa Barbara this morning at 9.