Orange County College Tennis : Irvine Men Take PCAA Championship

The UC Irvine men’s tennis team won the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship Sunday at Las Vegas to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA championships.

Trevor Kronemann, a freshman playing No. 2 singles, defeated Greg Failla of Cal State Long Beach, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to clinch the title.

Irvine finished with 53 points, followed by Cal State Long Beach with 51, Nevada Las Vegas 28, UC Santa Barbara 27, Fresno State 24, San Jose and New Mexico State 15, Cal State Fullerton 10, University of the Pacific 2 and Utah State 0.

Julian Barham and Darren Yates of Irvine defeated Richard Bergh and Patrik Hultgren of Long Beach, 7-6, 6-3, in doubles.

Richard Lubnar of Irvine, who had an eye infection and cold, defeated Mitch Bridge of Long Beach, 6-4, 7-6, at No. 6 singles.

The NCAA championships begin next Sunday.

In the PCAA women’s championships at San Jose:

Stephanie Rhorer and Kathy Rose of UC Irvine upset Monique Rose and Kelly Rapp of San Diego State, the No. 1-seeded doubles team, 7-6, 6-3, but San Diego State won the overall title with 56 points. UC Santa Barbara was second with 37, University of the Pacific had 34 and Irvine 32.

Frankie Heron and Mette Frank of Santa Barbara defeated Courtney Weichsel and Debbie Strombeck of Irvine, 6-4, 7-6, at No. 2 doubles.

Kristan Hildebrand of San Jose State defeated Uma Rau of Irvine, 7-6, 6-4, in the consolation bracket championship of singles.