UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Tennis Player Grover Has Doubles Vision

There was a time when Neel Grover couldn’t quite crack the top six in singles for UC Irvine’s tennis team. He had to make his reputation at doubles, and he did, helping pull out many a victory for Irvine.

When the team score is tied, 4-4, after all the singles matches and two of the doubles matches are complete, Irvine Coach Greg Patton is always glad to see Grover and his usual partner, Charles Wheeler, still on the court.

There’s a good chance they’ll pull out a third-set victory to put Irvine over the top for a 5-4 match victory.

“You always want to play singles--that’s where you get the most attention and help the team,” said Grover, a junior.

But matches almost always come down to doubles play.

“If you’re down after the singles, you still have a chance, but if you lose in doubles, it’s over,” Grover said. “That’s when you feel the heat.”

That’s when Grover has always thrived.

“He’s the greatest team player,” Patton said. “He really motivates the team. He’s just a spark plug. He’s a very selfless player in a sport that’s often selfish.”

Grover also has become a regular in singles this season, playing mostly at No. 4, 5 or 6. He recently took consecutive victories over players from California, UCLA and Duke, and he hopes to lead top-seeded Irvine to victory in the UCI/Marriott Classic, a 16-team tournament that begins Thursday. Most of the matches are at the UCI tennis stadium.

“He’s gone from the desert to the beach,” Patton said.

But he still has an affinity for doubles.

“I always get along better with someone else on the court,” Grover said. “It relaxes me.”

Grover and Wheeler are 4-5 at No. 2 doubles, a record that is something of a disappointment. They may thrive under pressure, but they also tend to stumble in “meaningless” matches.

“Whenever the (team) match is already over, we aren’t as high and don’t play as well,” Grover said.

Brett Hansen-Dent, a sophomore who was ranked 23rd in the nation in the preseason poll, has fallen to No. 47 after losing five consecutive matches at No. 1 singles.

“He’s getting all the heavyweights,” Patton said. “He’s lost five in a row, which I feel is no cause for alarm, even though, obviously, I’m distressed. I truly feel he’s one of the most talented players I’ve had here.”

Three of Hansen-Dent’s losses have come against elite players: Stanford’s Alex O’Brien, the nation’s second-ranked player; Cal’s Matt Lucena, who was ranked 15th at the time and is now 26th, and UCLA’s Mark Knowles, who is ranked fifth.

But he has also dropped his past two matches to Duke’s David Hall, ranked 50th, and Texas A&M;’s Mark Weaver, another player he was expected to beat.

“I think he’s lost a little bit of confidence,” Patton said. “He’s got to take the attitude that he’s playing the very best players in the country day in and day out.”

Patton is concerned, however, that Hansen-Dent is playing too defensively, letting his opponent take the offensive and leaving himself only to counterpunch.

“He needs to wield the sword instead of hold the sheath,” Patton said. “He’s a very laid-back, sweet kid. I think he needs to be more angry, a tiger, not an artist. Guys are spraying graffiti all around him. He’s got to take action instead of painting a masterpiece on the wall. He needs to be a little more angry.”

In addition to Hansen-Dent, there are four other nationally ranked players competing in the UCI tournament: No. 6 Mohamed Ridaoui (Mississippi), No. 12 Frank Schaffner (Alabama Birmingham), No. 28 Chet Crile (Washington) and No. 36 Greg Andersen (Fresno State).

The tournament championship will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at the UCI tennis stadium. Semifinals are at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday.

Coach Bill Ashen’s 4-13 volleyball team has lost five consecutive matches, and Ashen is taking a page from the playbook of Rod Baker, who didn’t shave during the men’s basketball team’s 11-game losing streak.

Ashen is growing sideburns.

“This is a la Baker,” Ashen said. “They’re getting ugly. Hopefully when Ohio State rolls in here we can shave ‘em.”

In a break from its high-caliber conference matches, Irvine plays Ohio State at 7:30 tonight in Crawford Hall.

Villanova, which has one of the nation’s top running programs, will be one of six schools represented in a track and field meet Saturday at the UCI track stadium. Villanova has won the past three NCAA women’s cross-country championships.

Field events begin at 11:30 a.m., and running events start at 1:15 p.m.

UCI Notes

Former Anteater basketball player Wayne Engelstad was a 10th-round pick of Calgary in Tuesday’s World Basketball League free agent draft. . . . The baseball team has excelled at home. The Anteaters are 12-2 at UCI, but the team’s road record is 2-7. . . . David Bladow, a senior right-hander who has made a big turnaround this season, lost for the first time this year last Saturday, but still has a 2.53 earned-run average to go with his 6-1 record. . . . The team is batting .296 and averaging almost six runs a game. . . . The women’s tennis team is 11-4 and is being led by Ali Yoshimoto, Biljana Korac and Krista Kuechler.