UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Patton Sets the Table for Tennis

It was only the preliminary round of UC Irvine’s 23-team tennis tournament, but Anteater Coach Greg Patton was scurrying about the UCI tennis stadium Tuesday, picking up bottles and trash, moving chairs and posting notices.

This tournament, the 11th annual, is Irvine’s own “tennis festival” and “dinner party,” Patton says. Picking up trash is like tidying the house for visitors.

The one little hitch last year was that the Anteaters finished third in the tournament after winning it for three years in a row, and six of the 10 it has been held.

Patton can explain--with a simile, as always.

“It was like someone coming over to your house and eating at your table and sleeping in your bed,” Patton said. “Then you come home and the bed isn’t made and the dishes aren’t washed.”

Patton doesn’t expect it to happen again, even though ninth-ranked Irvine will be challenged by seventh-ranked Harvard, 21st-ranked Auburn and 24th-ranked Texas Tech, among others.

“We’re hoping to tidy up our house,” he said.

The tournament, one of only a handful of traditional super-tournaments in the country, begins in earnest on Thursday with the round of 16. Some teams were eliminated in preliminary rounds Tuesday. Irvine, led by Trevor Kronemann and Richard Lubner, opens against Yale at 1:30 Thursday.

Irvine lost to Mississippi in the semifinals last year and Texas Christian beat Mississippi for the championship.

It was not as if it was a bad year for Irvine, which finished fourth in the NCAA championships.

“We were a train that was going full speed,” Patton said, switching from simile to metaphor. “We were looking at the NCAAs and didn’t consider this a stop.”

A rainout forced the late-round matches to be shortened, with teams playing five singles matches and one doubles instead of the traditional six singles and three doubles matches. Patton said he made the mistake of switching his doubles team, playing a team that had not been competing together. Irvine won three singles matches, but lost the two-point doubles match.

Or, in metaphorical language: “The tracks got flooded by a rainy day,” Patton said.

Among the top players in this year’s tournament, which includes 14 of the nation’s top 100 and continues Thursday through Sunday:

--Harvard sophomore Michael Shyjan, ranked 14th in the country.

--Harvard sophomore Michael Zimmerman, ranked 16th.

--Irvine senior Trevor Kronemann, ranked 22nd.

--Utah senior Johan Hogstedt, ranked 26th.

--Wisconsin junior Jack Waite, ranked 38th.

--Fresno State senior Marcos Garzo, ranked 39th.

The doubles competition includes five of the top 30 teams, not counting Irvine’s combination of Kronemann and Richard Lubner, who only recently began playing together.

Last year, Kronemann finished second in the NCAA championships playing with Mike Briggs, who has turned professional. Lubner, who is ranked 63rd in singles this season, reached the semifinals, playing with Mark Kaplan.

Kronemann and Lubner are not ranked as a team, even though Kronemann remains ranked with former partner Shige Kanroji. But Patton said he, Kronemann and Lubner together are capable of winning the NCAA championship.

“They’re an almost unbeatable No. 1,” he said.

Augie Garrido’s grand homecoming will be at Cal State Fullerton on Thursday when he brings Illinois to Titan Field, where he coached two national championship teams. Garrido also will return to Anteater Field, where Illinois plays Irvine at 7 p.m. Friday in the Anteaters’ first home night game of the season.

Irvine, at 18-9, is off to its best start since 1981. The Anteaters play Wisconsin at home on Saturday and Sunday, play host to California on Monday and play USC at home on Tuesday.

Brian Pajer, ranked second in the nation in the 100-meter breaststroke and third in the 200, makes his fourth appearance at the NCAA swimming championships this weekend at Indianapolis. Pajer, a senior from Mission Viejo, finished 10th in the 100 at the NCAAs last season.

Anteater Notes

The men’s volleyball team, which beat No. 16 George Mason but lost to No. 2 UCLA last week, plays third-ranked Cal State Long Beach at 7:30 tonight at the 49ers’ University Gym. . . . The baseball team’s offense continues to thrive, averaging 7.5 runs a game. The Anteaters now have hit more home runs (14) and triples (12) than in all of last season, when they hit 10 of each. Irvine’s team batting average: .320. Team slugging percentage: .445. . . . The lull in the schedules of many Irvine teams this week is because of final exams.