ITCA SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : UC Irvine’s Stern Loses to Top-Seeded Decret in Quarterfinals

Although Brett Stern could not overcome large early deficits in either set, the UC Irvine sophomore was most satisfied with his performance in a 6-3, 6-1 loss to UC Santa Barbara’s David Decret in a quarterfinal match of the ITCA Southern California men’s tennis championships at UC Irvine Saturday.

“I thought I played pretty well,” Stern said. “A few points here and there made a difference.”

Decret, the tournament’s top-seeded player, won the first five games, breaking Stern’s serve in the second and fourth games.

“He came out pretty on, and I was sluggish,” said Stern, who then held serve in the sixth and eighth games, and broke Decret in the seventh before Decret closed out the set in the ninth.

Decret, a senior from France who is 15th on the Volvo Tennis/Collegiate Rankings, broke Stern’s serve in the opening game of the second set.

“He got some confidence from that and just started rolling,” Stern said.

Decret won the next three games. Stern held serve in the fifth, Decret held in the sixth and broke Stern in the seventh.

“I played much better than my first three matches,” said Decret, whose practice time had been limited in the past two weeks because of an injured left shoulder. “I had a hard time getting into the tournament. I was kind of struggling to get my timing. Just by hitting and hitting balls a lot (Thursday and Friday), it just came back.”

Decret, a semifinalist in September’s National Intercollegiate Clay Court Tennis Championships, one of four tournaments that make up the collegiate grand slam, advanced to today’s 10 a.m. final with a 6-2, 6-3 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Howard Joffee of Pepperdine later Saturday.

Unseeded Cary Lothringer of Pepperdine defeated teammate Charles Auffray, 6-2, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

To Irvine Coach Greg Patton, the tournament’s results bode well for Stern and the rest of his 18th-ranked team.

“I’m really excited about the way Brett came back,” Patton said. “He’s like the American Werewolf in London, in how this guy almost transformed into this ravaging animal. He’s starting to believe in himself. This was a great tournament for him.”

The Anteaters will conclude official practice sessions later this month, then begin drills again in January. When the dual match season opens Jan. 19 in New Mexico, Irvine figures to also have the services of Brett Hansen-Dent, ranked 23rd nationally, and highly-touted redshirt freshman Marco Zuniga. Hansen-Dent is skipping the fall collegiate season to play the professional satellite tour and Zuniga is recovering from a wrist injury.

“In this tournament, you see who has what,” Patton said. “I’m really impressed with UC Santa Barbara and the University of San Diego. They’re stronger than I thought they would be. But I’m also looking at Brett and Freddy (Bach) and Neel Grover, and I’m looking at a pretty solid team myself.”

However, Patton has found one drawback in having a team with no seniors and only two juniors.

“Everybody thinks I’m coaching a junior high school team,” Patton said.