National Junior Racquetball Tournament : Conine Arrives Late, Takes Care of Rodriguez Early

The car Jeff Conine was driving from Los Angeles to Newport Beach on Tuesday broke down en route to his semifinal singles match in the 18-and-under division of the United States National Junior Racquetball Championships. His match was postponed for nearly 2 1/2 hours.

When he finally arrived at the Newport Beach Sporting House, Conine proceeded to break down his opponent, Bobby Rodriguez of Colorado, with his powerful serves and drive shots to advance to the finals with a 15-6, 15-4 win.

Conine, who lives in Rialto, was returning from UCLA after registering for fall classes when the car he was driving, which belonged to his doubles partner in the tournament, Brent Russell, stalled on the eastbound 91 freeway. He notified the tournament directors of his dilemma, and they agreed to allow the match, which had been scheduled for a 3 p.m. starting time, to be played immediately following the 4 p.m. semifinal match.

However, because Conine was tardy beyond the 15-minute time limit allowed by rule, Rodriguez was given the option of accepting a victory by forfeiture. He refused the offer, saying, “I wouldn’t want to win it like that.”

Rodriguez might have had second thoughts once the match began, though, as Conine disposed of him in just 35 minutes.

Although Conine is seeded No. 29 in the tournament, his win over No. 8 Rodriguez was not necessarily an upset. The seeding of Conine, whose shots have officially been clocked on a radar gun at 151 m.p.h. (Marty Hogan, the hardest hitting pro, has been recorded as high as 142 m.p.h.), were affected by his absence from the racquetball circuit for the past two years because of his commitments as a UCLA baseball player, and therefore received a low ranking.

Conine overwhelmed Rodriguez from the outset. He served three of his four aces during the opening game’s first five points to jump out to a 5-0 lead, and wrapped up the contest with a series of devastating kill shots.

In the second game, Rodriguez took an early 3-1 lead before losing 14 of the last 15 points, and thus the match.

Rodriguez was able to make adjustments to handle some of Conine’s drive shots in the second game, but he was still unable to return his serve with any consistency.

“I expected his serve to be like that,” Rodriguez said. “He’s got a really tough serve. There wasn’t much I could do. I knew if I took time (in between points), he’d do the same thing.”

In the finals of the boys 18s, which are scheduled to begin at 1:15 today, Conine will face Mike Bronfield of Carmel Valley. Bronfield rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the final game of his semifinal match against Pleasanton’s Mike Griffith Tuesday to win, 15-8, 8-15, 15-11.

In other tournament action Tuesday, Bronfield and his partner, Dale Millholin of Suison, Calif., lost to Florida’s Charlie Nichols and Michigan’s Scott Reid in the finals of the boys 18s doubles, 15-6, 15-13.

Top-seeded Dina Pritchett of Indiana advanced to the singles finals in the girls 18s with a win over Ohio’s Kerry Ann Niggemeyer, 15-5, 15-6. Her opponent in today’s finals will be Elaine Mardas of Ohio, who beat El Cajon’s Joy Paraiso in the semifinals Tuesday, 15-7, 15-12.