UCI’s Tennis Team Has Enough to Beat UNLV

UC Irvine men’s tennis Coach Greg Patton said his team had a “scary” time during its Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. opener against improved Nevada Las Vegas, but the Anteaters came through by sweeping the doubles for a 6-3 victory Saturday at Irvine.

The 17th-ranked Anteaters were ailing. There was even some doubt whether they would have enough healthy players to compete. Of 14 players, three had the flu, two had stress fractures, one had a bad back and another had a turned ankle.

“Instead of a tennis team, I brought out the hospital ward,” Patton said. “Instead of a brand new Mercedes, I had to bring a Volkswagen running on one cylinder. But they did the job anyway.”

In the No. 1 singles match, UNLV’s Scott Warner defeated Bruce Man Son Hing, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the No. 2 match, UCI’s Darren Yates beat Greg Miller, 6-4, 7-6, and the Anteaters won the No. 3 match as Mike Downs defeated John McCauley, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

The Rebels’ Mark Coronado defeated James Myers, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in the No. 4 match. Irvine’s Julian Barham beat Tom Sullivan, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 5, but the Rebels tied the match at 3-3 as Lee Rosenthal defeated Mike Cadigan, 6-3. 2-6, 6-2, in the No. 6 match.

But all the doubles went to the Anteaters, topped by the victory of Man Son Hing and Yates over Warner and McCauley, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the No. 1 match.

In women’s action:

UCLA 9, UC Irvine 0--The seventh-ranked Bruins defeated the Anteaters in a nonconference match in Westwood Saturday.

The top effort for UCI (3-2) came in the No. 1 doubles match when Dina Trenwith and Haruko Shigekawa took the No. 7 doubles team in the country, Jane Thomas and Jennifer Fuchs, into three sets before losing, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.