College Tennis : UCSB Closes In on Favorite in PCAA Women’s Final

Angie Minissian, UC Santa Barbara tennis coach, had good reason to smile Saturday.

The Gauchos trailed tournament favorite San Diego State by only two points, 29-27, after the second day of competition at the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. women’s tennis championships at UC Irvine.

“We’re in a good position and I think we have a very good chance of overtaking them,” Minissian said.

The Gauchos play the Aztecs in three of the six single matches this morning. UCSB also has two teams in the doubles finals. The Aztecs have none in doubles, but six players in the singles finals.

University of Pacific is third with 19 points, followed by Cal State Long Beach (17), UC Irvine (16), Hawaii (11), Nevada Las Vegas (7) and Cal State Fullerton (0).

So far, the tournament’s biggest surprise is UCI’s non-seeded doubles team of Dina Trenwith and Haruko Shidekawa. The sophomores defeated UOP’s Kristi Kern and Tiffany Lee, 6-3, 6-2.

“This is a dangerous team,” UCI Coach Doreen Irish said. “When they play loose and just have fun, they usually win. In the finals they have to be aggressive and relax.”

They will meet UNLV’s Cindy Lauer and Jane Howe--also unseeded--in the final at 2 p.m. today.

Today’s top-seeded women’s individual final will match Monique Javer of SDSU against Mette Frank of UCSB at 9 a.m.

Cal State Long Beach placed four singles players in the finals as the 49ers took a commanding lead after the second day of competition at the PCAA men’s tennis championships at Long Beach.

Long Beach had 41 points after Saturday’s matches. UCI is second with 30. Fresno is third with 28 points followed by San Jose State (26), UC Santa Barbara (23), Nevada Las Vegas (19), New Mexico State (9), Utah State (7), University of Pacific (4) and Cal State Fullerton (1).

UCI’s Mark Kaplan defeated Fresno State’s Vinnie Giudicelli, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to the No. 4 singles final. Irvine’s Julian Barham made the No. 6 singles final by defeating Chris Gerey of Fresno State, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2.

Matches start at 10 today.

In an all-Saddleback College final, Fred Morris and John Rusk defeated Mike Boice and Dana Bozeman, 6-3, 7-6, as the Gauchos won the South Coast Conference men’s tennis championship at Saddleback Saturday.

The Gauchos’ strong performance in doubles gave them 27 points, edging Orange Coast College (26).

OCC’s Dean Olson defeated teammate Chris Ganz in the singles final, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2.

Rancho Santiago finished third (8 points), followed by Cypress (7), Cerritos (6), Fullerton (5), Mt. San Antonio (4) and Golden West (1).