UC Irvine Notebook / Barbie Ludovise : She Knows Where She’s Going, but Sometimes Not Where She’s Been

There’s a standing joke among members of the UC Irvine women’s tennis team. If team captain Kathy Rose has something of value one day, she’ll probably lose it the next.

Rose, a senior and the team’s No. 2 singles player, has had, from time to time, some trouble keeping track of her belongings.

First it was her tennis rackets. Rose said they mysteriously disappeared en route to a tennis tournament at Houston.

“I know I had them when I left the house for the tournament,” Rose said. “But when we got to Texas, they weren’t with me.”

No matter. Rose borrowed a spare from a teammate and proceeded to win all of her matches.

Then it was her tennis shoes.

“When we left this tournament in Northern California, Kathy had two shoes on her feet,” Anteater Coach Doreen Irish said. “When we got home, she had just one shoe. The other was never found.”

Then it was her car.

“We drove through four lots on campus looking for it,” Irish said. “It just wasn’t anywhere. But then we found it in the parking lot of the hotel her parents were staying at.

“There was an explanation for that one, though.”

Rose had forgotten that her parents had arranged to borrow the car.

Absent-minded? Rose admits, at times, it’s true.

“Funny things happen like that all the time,” she said. “Everyone gives me a hard time about it.”

But it’s all in fun.

On the tennis court or in the classroom, Rose, a 21-year-old social ecology major, rarely loses her way. Although her overall singles record of 9-9 is not spectacular, Rose has been a stabilizing force for Irvine as team captain for the past three years.

Especially this year, because Irvine (10-13 overall) has not had the most stable of seasons. Injury and illness have haunted the Anteaters.

“This year it’s been so up and down,” Rose said. “It’s different from last year (when the team finished 18-6--its best record since it was 23-4 in 1977).

“When your team does well, it’s like everything keeps rolling, the wins seem to just come. But when there’s sickness and injuries . . . well, everyone’s really got to concentrate on their own game really hard.”

Rose said her concentration on the court has been a greater challenge this year because she is scheduled to graduate in June and then plans to go into corporate health management.

After finishing her weightlifting Wednesday morning, Rose ordered a bowl of granola and skim milk at a Newport Beach coffee shop and listed her present priorities.

“I like helping people, especially helping them get fit,” she said. “Like I just heard about this machine that measures people’s body fat and cholesterol and lean body mass. . . . I heard they cost about $5,000, but I’d love to have one.”

Rose is a part-time intern at the Irvine Medical Center, where, among other duties, she writes exercise therapy programs. She is also an on-campus peer health adviser, which means she organizes health, fitness and nutrition workshops for students in the dormitories and high school students.

“Right now we’re starting to do drug and alcohol prevention workshops,” said Rose, whose mother, Sharon Rose, is the national chairperson of the Red Ribbon Campaign, a national drug prevention group.

Kathy Rose, who was a nationally ranked junior tennis player while growing up in Davis, Calif., said she has little desire to play professionally after she graduates.

“I don’t see pro tennis as my life,” Rose said. “It’s just not for me. With all the travel and the life style, it’s too mentally draining and there’s so many good players.”

Rose got a taste of the hard-core tennis life style when, as a junior in high school, she attended Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla., for six months.

“It had its ups and downs, but mostly it was like boot camp,” she said. “Lights at out 10. Get up and play by 8 a.m. No girls by the boys’ dorms. No food allowed in the rooms. . . . “My boyfriend there had given me a huge Hershey’s Kiss, but during a room search they found it and took it away.

“Life’s a little different in college.”

With just three weeks remaining in her collegiate career--without a chance of a berth into the NCAA Championships in May, the Anteaters will finish their season at the Big West Conference Championships at Ojai, April 27-29--Rose said she’ll be happy to retire into the world of career and recreational pursuits.

Said Rose: “Most of my friends say, ‘No way. You’re not going to play (on the pro circuit) this summer?’ But I just want to work and have some fun now. It’s time to do other things.”

In men’s tennis, senior Mark Kaplan, 26-5 and on a 20-match winning streak, was named the Volvo tennis player of the month for March by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. Kaplan, ranked 14th in the nation, went 15-0 during the month.

Junior Trevor Kronemann, ranked 20th, is 22-14; sophomore Mike Briggs from Corona del Mar High is ranked 58th and is 19-9, and junior Richard Lubner is 21-15.

The Anteaters (18-6) are ranked fifth in the nation.

Victory No. 1: The men’s volleyball team won its first Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match Tuesday night by defeating 14th-ranked Loyola Marymount, 15-12, 12-15, 15-13, 15-10, at Loyola Marymount.

The victory was the Anteaters’ first after 18 conference losses. Sophomores David Pettker, an outside hitter, had 25 kills and Steve Florentine, a middle blocker, had 24 kills.

Irvine (7-24 overall, 1-18 in the WIVA) is ranked 17th in the nation.

After beginning its program as a club sport in 1987, Irvine is in its second season of intercollegiate competition. All Irvine players will return next season.