NCAA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Kronemann Not Enough; UCI Falls to Tennessee

Soon enough, UC Irvine’s tennis season rested on the wide body of Trevor Kronemann.

Tennessee, undefeated and ranked first in the country, swept through the bottom of Irvine’s lineup in straight sets.

With every singles match complete but the contest at No. 1 between Kronemann and Doug Flach, Tennessee led, 4-1, one victory short of winning the second-round match in the NCAA team tennis championships Saturday at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort.

Kronemann had six match points on Flach. He used five of them before taking a 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 victory with an ace on double match point and forcing doubles play.

But Kronemann’s point was ultimately moot. As soon as Irvine lost in doubles, Tennessee won, 5-2, canceling the final two doubles matches.

“I was hoping to go into doubles 3-3,” Irvine Coach Greg Patton said.

Instead, they almost didn’t go into doubles at all.

“Trevor kept his last dual match exciting,” Patton said.

Irvine’s only other point came on Richard Lubner’s 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Tim Jessup at No. 2 singles.

Irvine finished the season 19-13.

Tennessee, which advanced to today’s third-round match against Miami, clinched when Coenie de Villiers and John Gibson came back after losing the first set to defeat Irvine’s Carsten Hoffman and Mike Roberts at No. 2 doubles, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

“They really played well in the first set,” de Villiers said. “They were motivated and we were a little timid.”

Hoffman and Roberts had seemed in control early in the match. Patton’s concern was focused a court away, where Lubner and Neel Grover had lost the first set. But while Lubner and Grover were coming back to split sets, Hoffman and Roberts lost the second, and fell behind in the third. When they lost, the other two matches were cancelled.

“I was really impressed by the depth of their team,” Patton said. “I was really confident at No. 1 and No. 2, and hoping we’d be able to do something between three and six.”

They couldn’t. Shige Kanroji lost to Brice Karsh, 6-3, 6-2; Roberts lost to Fabio Silberberg, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Hoffman lost to deVilliers, 6-4, 6-1; and Randy Ivey lost to John Gibson, 6-2, 6-3.

The No. 1 match pitted Kronemann, a 6-foot-3, 228-pound senior, against Flach, a 6-1, 150-pound freshman and the brother of professional player Ken Flach.

Watching close by was Tennessee Coach Mike DePalmer, who gave Kronemann his first tennis lesson when Kronemann was 7, and who will coach him some this summer.

“It was a tedious situation, because I was pulling my heart out for my guy, but Trevor is like a little son--a big son--for me,” DePalmer said. “I wanted my guy to win, but I wanted Trevor to play well.”

Kronemann took the first set, breaking Flach in the final game to win, 6-4. In the second, he had match point on Flach’s serve in the 10th game, but Flach held with a service winner. Flach eventually forced a tiebreaker. Kronemann built a 5-3 lead, but Flach rallied to win, 8-6, with Kronemann flubbing another match point when one of his shots hit the net and landed out.

The third set was a lesson in the breaks of the game, with neither player able to hold serve against the other in four consecutive games. But then Kronemann held to go ahead, 5-3.

He had two more match points in the next game before losing, letting Flach back to 5-4.

“I knew from the very beginning of the third set that it was 4-1,” Kronemann said. “When I went out to serve for the match at 5-4, I had the jitters. I decided I just had to forget it, and I got four big serves.”

He won the first two points with service winners, then lost a point on a nice shot by Flach. On the next point, Kronemann passed Flach on the sideline to set up double match point, and served an ace to win it.

Irvine’s NCAA appearance was its fifth, and the Anteaters have yet to advance beyond the second round.

Kronemann and Lubner will play in the NCAA singles championships beginning Wednesday, and Kronemann will team with Kanroji in the doubles championships.

NCAA Notes

In the other second-round matches, No. 2 UCLA beat No. 17 San Diego, 5-1; No. 3 Stanford, the two-time defending champion, breezed past Oklahoma State, 5-1; No. 4 Georgia eliminated No. 23 Northwestern from its first NCAA tourney, 5-2; Texas upset No. 5 Pepperdine, 5-3; No. 8 and host USC beat South Carolina, 5-2; and Miami, Fla., beat No. 15 Arizona State. No. 6 California beat No. 11 LSU, 5-3, in a match that lasted 6 1/2 hours. . . . Georgia, which has been the host school since the team format was adopted in 1977, was playing it its first “away” NCAAs. . . . Georgia will play the Trojans today. The Bulldogs and Trojans have played five times in the tournament, with Georgia winning each time, including in the second round last year. . . . Northwestern’s Todd Martin, the nation’s top-ranked player, beat No. 4 Al Parker, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3. . . . Tennessee was one of the 12 teams that drew first-round byes.