Kaplan Gains in NCAA Tennis; Leach in Altercation

Sophomore Mark Kaplan on Thursday became the first UC Irvine tennis player ever to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA Division I championship, defeating Scott Warner of Nevada Las Vegas, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals at the University of Georgia at Athens, Ga.

Kaplan will meet Andrew Burrow of the University of Miami in the semifinals today. Earlier Thursday, Kaplan defeated Felix Barrientos of Louisiana State, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.

UC Irvine’s doubles team of Julian Barham and Darren Yates advanced to today’s quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 upset of fourth-seeded Brett Garnett and Ashley Roney of Southwest Louisiana. Barham and Yates will meet Pat Crow and Kevin Gillette of Cal State Long Beach today.

UC Irvine’s Trevor Kronemann was eliminated in singles competition, losing to Shelby Cannon of the University of Tennessee, 7-6, 6-3.

Rick Leach of USC, son of Trojan tennis coach Dick Leach, chased a fan and had to be retrained by campus police.

After losing his third-round match to Ned Carswell of Furman, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, Rick Leach traded insults with a Georgia reserve player, then turned over a newsstand. When a fan responded, Leach went after the fan with a broken racket and stepped onto the hood of a car, saying: “Come on, you want me to kill you?”

Police then intervened.

“People couldn’t let me leave in peace,” Leach said later. “Then they started saying things about my dad I didn’t like. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

The elder Leach also apologized.