UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Tennis Team Seems Forever Young

Greg Patton only wishes he could bottle the formula.

“We’re younger than we were last year,” said Patton, UC Irvine’s men’s tennis coach. “How’d we do that?”

Irvine was a youthful but extremely promising team last season. But after Mike Roberts, who was the No. 1 player last year and would have been the team’s only senior, decided to leave school and turn professional, Irvine looks fresh-faced again.

When the 21st-ranked Anteaters open their season Sunday at 23rd-ranked New Mexico, the top six could include as many as three freshmen or three sophomores and no more than two juniors. There isn’t a senior in sight.

“I’m feeling younger every day,” Patton said. “I’m telling you, this team is a fountain of youth.”

That isn’t such a terrible plight. Patton’s best player, Brett Hansen-Dent, is only a sophomore but was ranked 47th in the country as a freshman. Hansen-Dent took the fall quarter off from school and played in satellite tournaments of the professional tour. He regularly made it through qualifying rounds to the main draw but usually lost in the first or second round.

“I can’t tell you how nice it is to have him back,” Patton said.

One of the questions is how long Irvine will be able to keep him.

“We’ll have to sit down and have a long talk about that,” Patton said. “I have several goals. My No. 1 goal is that he is really successful this year in college tennis. My second is that he comes back next year to lead us to contend for the national championship.”

Behind Hansen-Dent is a tangle of talent.

“You ask me who will play two through six, and every day I change my mind,” Patton said. “I think we will be really deep at four, five and six this year.”

Among the candidates for the top six, in no particular order:

--Fred Bach, a freshman who reached the third round of a competitive collegiate field in a Milwaukee invitational tournament last week.

--Neel Grover, a junior who Patton says is playing “really, really well” and will play singles after being mostly a doubles specialist.

--Charles Wheeler, a sophomore who is still 18 but played in the top six last year.

--Brett Stern, a sophomore who won the Big West title at No. 5 last season and reached the quarterfinals of the ITCA Southern California Championships in November.

--Chris Tontz, a freshman from San Diego.

--Marco Zuniga, a freshman who redshirted last season because of a wrist injury that has required two surgeries. Patton calls him a “franchise player.” When Hansen-Dent was the top-ranked junior player in Southern California, Zuniga, from Bonita, was No. 2.

--Aaron Stolpman, who rejoined the team a few weeks ago after leaving two years ago with a broken foot, suffered while playing pickup basketball. He played No. 4 for a team that was ranked 13th in the country.

There’s an abundance of talent. Patton only hopes he can see it mature.

“We’ve got a lot of wealth,” he said. “I’ve got to make sure I invest wisely so we can reap dividends.”

Women’s basketball coach Colleen Matsuhara feared the worst, and she was right. The career of Kathy Lizarraga, Irvine’s leading scorer, has been ended by a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Lizarraga, who sustained the injury in a game against UC Santa Barbara Jan. 4, is expected to undergo surgery this spring, and faces about a nine-month rehabilitation process.

Lizarraga ends her career as the fifth-leading scorer in the program’s history, with 1,064 points, and holds almost all of the Irvine women’s three-point shooting records:

--Most three-pointers made (7) and attempted (13) in a game

--Most three-pointers made (67) and attempted (163) in a season

--Most three-pointers made (218) and attempted (614) in a career.

Christina Adams, who quit the team in October because of back trouble, has rejoined Matsuhara’s squad in an effort to add depth at guard after the loss of Lizarraga.

Adams, a freshman, led the state in scoring and was fourth in scoring during her junior season at Grossmont High School, averaging 38.3 points a game.

The men’s team has started league play 0-4, with home losses to New Mexico State and Nevada Las Vegas and road losses to Utah State and Fresno State.

What did Coach Rod Baker think of Irvine’s performances against Utah State--an 18-point loss--and Fresno State--a 27-point loss?

“I can’t tell you that; you won’t print it,” Baker said.

The Anteaters’ biggest problem, clearly, is their offense.

“We’re struggling to score,” Baker said.

It’s a problem that feeds on itself, to some extent.

“Scorers have a certain mentality. I don’t know if we have any legitimate scorers,” Baker said. “Guys like (Cal State Fullerton’s) Joe Small and (Fresno State’s) Wilbert Hooker will keep shooting no matter what. We become a little bit tentative.”

Two victory-hungry teams meet Saturday, when Cal State Fullerton takes its four-game losing streak into the Bren Center to play Irvine, which has lost five in a row.

Ugly Stat of the Week: The three teams the men’s team has beaten this season have a combined record of 8-31: San Diego State (2-11), Lafayette (2-10) and Bradley (4-10). Irvine is 3-10.

Anteater Notes

The men’s volleyball team opens its season tonight against Pepperdine in Crawford Hall and hosts UC San Diego Friday at 7:30. The team, 5-16 last season, has three returning starters--James Felton, Chad Milling and Leland Quinn. . . . The sailing team won the 17-team Rose Bowl Regatta in Long Beach last week. . . . A UCI men’s basketball alumni game for former varsity and junior varsity players is being organized for the day of a homecoming game against UC Santa Barbara on January 25. Information: (714) 856-7589.