Anteater Doubles Team Takes on USC in Final

Julian Barham and Darren Yates of UC Irvine won two doubles matches Friday to advance to today’s final of the NCAA Individual Tennis Championships at the University of Georgia in Athens. Anteater sophomore Mark Kaplan, however, lost his semifinal singles match to Andrew Burrow of the University of Miami.

Barham and Yates defeated Cal State Long Beach’s Pat Crow and Kevin Gillette, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the quarterfinals and then beat Kentucky’s Rich Benson and Greg Van Emburgh, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, in the semifinals.

The Anteater team, ranked seventh in the nation with a 34-7 record, will play the third-ranked team of Scott Melville and Rick Leach from USC in today’s final. It will be the first time in Irvine’s 10-year Division I history that the Anteaters will have tennis players competing for an individual national championship.

Burrow, ranked seventh in the nation, defeated Kaplan, 7-6, 2-6, 6-1, in singles competition. Kaplan, who is ranked 20th, closed the season with a 33-14 record. Burrow advances to play Michigan’s Dan Goldberg in today’s singles championship.