The Colleges : Patton’s Feeling Better With Each UC Irvine Tennis Win

For the past eight years, Greg Patton, UC Irvine men’s tennis coach, has struggled to bring his program to national prominence.

So, last May, when the Anteaters--ranked 15th in the nation--made their second-ever appearance at the NCAA tournament at Athens, Ga., it was a pretty big moment.

And, there to welcome the Anteaters, Patton recalls, was a banner. Problem was the banner said, “Welcome Cal State Irving.”

So, they’re not exactly a household name yet.

But, whatever you call them, the Anteaters are definitely beginning to gain the respect of the college tennis community.

Irvine is currently ranked sixth in the nation, and shouldn’t have any trouble getting an invitation to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

The team’s top three singles players--Mark Kaplan, Trevor Kronemann and Richard Lubner--are ranked 30th, 45th and 56th, respectively, in the nation. The doubles team of Kronemann and Mike Briggs is ranked sixth in the nation.

Among the strong teams that Irvine (17-4) has beaten this year are seventh-ranked Michigan, Georgia Tech, Cal, Duke, Kansas, Tennessee and Arizona State.

Perhaps the biggest psychological victory came in the National Team Indoor tournament in mid-February over ninth-ranked UCLA. The Anteaters had never beaten the Bruins and the victory placed them smack in the middle of the California tennis hierarchy.

“People think of USC, Pepperdine and Stanford,” Patton said, describing the big guns. “We moved UCLA over a little bit to make room for ourselves.”

Wednesday, the Anteaters get a chance to do a little more pushing around. They play USC, which slipped from No. 1 in the nation to No. 2 in the current rankings and is coming off a weekend loss to Stanford.

“Without question Irvine is becoming well known,” Richard Gallien, Pepperdine co-coach, said. “The win over UCLA was a big psychological hurdle for them. No one looks forward to playing them.”

Pepperdine, however, still remains ahead of Irvine. Last Saturday, for the second time this season, Irvine lost to Pepperdine, which has the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked singles players in the nation in Robby Weiss and Andrew Sznajde. The 7-2 loss broke Irvine’s 10-game winning streak.

“The Waves swept us right off the beach,” Patton conceded. “But we’re anxious to be thrown right back in there with the lions. We’re looking forward to playing USC. The loss was a good slap of reality and showed us some things we need to work on.”

According to Patton, Irvine has been steadily improving since last season. And the team will undoubtedly be even better next year.

Irvine will not be losing a single one of its top six singles players. In fact, Kaplan and Mike Cadigan, the No. 6 player, are the only juniors on the young team. Kronemann, Lubner and No. 5 Shige Kanroji are sophomores and No. 4 Mike Briggs is a freshman from Corona del Mar High School.

“A team like this is very rare,” Patton said. “It’s a special group, the hardest working team I’ve ever had. I’m just excited to have two whole years with these guys.”

The molding of the team started last year, when the players were schooled with Patton’s philosophy of self-control and self-motivation, of being confident without being cocky.

“The Irvine mystique is to be quiet and play your butt off,” Patton said. “To be tough, yet be a gentleman.”

Patton, who was named the coach of the year last year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn., has always demanded a disciplined attitude and hard work from his players. But, this year, his personal experiences have tempered his philosophy a bit.

Last Christmas, Patton, 35, became extremely ill, with dizziness, nausea and a loss of hearing. He was bedridden for close to three weeks and underwent a subsequent battery of tests to find out if his illness was caused by a tumor. Eventually a viral infection was determined to be the source of his sickness.

Patton, whose father died of cancer at the age of 41, still suffers bouts of dizziness and a hearing loss. But other remnants of his illness are more positive.

“It really was a positive experience,” Patton said. “It helped me get my priorities straight. Winning a national championship has always been a goal for me. But here I’d helped Irvine to national prominence and I was sick in bed and it didn’t really mean anything. I realized my relationship with my players was more important than an NCAA plaque.”

When he came back this spring, his team picked up on his new attitude.

“There’s an unbelievable change,” Lubner said. “He’s a lot more open and understanding.”

And the way the season is going, Patton continues to feel a lot better.

“It’s Vitamin W,” he said. “There’s nothing like winning to make me feel good.”