UCI Upsets No. 6 Stanford in Tennis

Mark Kaplan, UC Irvine’s No. 1 singles player, led the men’s tennis team to a 5-2 upset of No. 6 Stanford Friday in a nonconference match at Palo Alto.

Kaplan, a sophomore, defeated junior Patrick McEnroe, 6-4, 6-4. McEnroe, the brother of John, is the No. 3 player in the nation.

Irvine, No. 22 team in the country, had lost eight straight matches to the Cardinal since Greg Patton became the Anteater coach 11 years ago.

“This ranks as one of our biggest wins,” Patton said. “The only other win that comes close is when we beat SMU in 1983 when they were No. 1.”

Trevor Kronemann, playing No. 3 singles, defeated Stanford’s Jeff Cathrall, 6-3, 6-3, and Shige Kanroji, playing No. 5 singles, defeated Stanford’s Scott Moody, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6. In doubles, the team of Kaplan and Kronemann rallied to defeat Cathrall and Jeff Tarango, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Irvine (3-1), plays Cal today at Berkeley in a nonconference match. Stanford is 1-1.