Chapman Tennis Player Takes Care of Business Off the Court, Too

It’s after midnight at the Chapman University dorms. Most residents are sleeping, some are tuning into late-night television, a few are even studying. But Aris Vassiliou’s work has just begun.

Rather than David Letterman, Vassiliou pays attention to his fax machine, whirring into the night.

“It’s so quiet you can’t even hear it,” Vassiliou said. “I bought it especially so I’m not going to bother my roommate.”

Vassiliou, the best player on the Chapman men’s tennis team, is also an international businessman who runs the American arm of his father’s Greece-based import-export business.

Because regular business hours in Greece start at about 11 p.m. California time, Vassiliou keeps irregular hours, usually working until at least 1:30 a.m., sometimes as late as 4 a.m.

Between tennis, school (he’s a physical education major) and business, Vassiliou has time for only three or four hours of sleep a night. “It’s pretty interesting but pretty tiring, too,” he said.

But his budding business career hasn’t hampered his tennis game. He is ranked 20th nationally among NCAA Division II players, and Chapman Coach Reddy Gustine says he should be ranked higher.

Vassiliou is 12-5 this season, with his only losses coming against Division I players, and he has beaten Steve Aragon of UC Riverside, who is ranked eighth in Division II.

As a junior player in Kavala, Greece, Vassiliou was ranked as high as third in the nation, but he said not many people play tennis in his country. So he sought out tougher competition by spending a couple summers in Sweden, honing his skills and playing in European tournaments.

He hoped to earn ATP points and eventually join the professional tour, but just when he thought he was on the verge of a breakthrough, he tore a muscle in his abdomen during a tournament match.

“I remember the score,” Vassiliou said. “I was leading, 6-4, 3-2, 40-15. I tried to serve and that was it. They took me out on a stretcher.

“It’s the worst place to have an injury because you can’t even walk, you can’t even run. You can’t do anything.”

Vassiliou returned home to heal and when it came time to take the entrance exams for college in Greece, his father offered him the opportunity to attend school in the United States.

Vassiliou decided in favor of an American education for two reasons: to continue developing his tennis game and to learn to speak English better for business purposes.

He chose Chapman at random from a list of California schools and researched the campus’ offerings in a limited way.

“I wanted to make sure there was a tennis team here,” Vassiliou said.

There was a team, of course, but Vassiliou wasn’t on it at first. A week before the 1990 season, he learned he wasn’t eligible because he hadn’t taken the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

So he was forced to sit out a season before playing for the Panthers last year. Despite the layoff, he made rapid improvement, playing in the No. 3 singles position last season.

This year, he has moved up to No. 1, and Gustine gives him a good shot at challenging for the Division II singles title. He also plans to attempt to make the Greek Olympic team for the Summer Games in Barcelona.

But Vassiliou prefers to keep talk of his ambitions to a minimum.

“I don’t like talking too much about myself,” Vassiliou said. “I don’t like saying big things because if you do and lose, you go all the way down.”

Low budget: The Chapman athletic department announced this month that it would be eliminating athletic scholarships after the 1992-93 school year, but the men’s tennis team has virtually been operating under those conditions for three seasons.

Chapman had one of the most dominant Division II tennis teams of the late 1980s, winning national titles in ‘85, ’87 and ‘88, and finishing second in ’86 and fourth in ’89. But no new tennis scholarships were offered after 1989, and Coach Terry Davis resigned in 1990 after the Panthers finished last of eight teams at the national tournament.

Gustine replaced Davis last season, and the Panthers finished an injury-plagued season with a 6-12 record, missing the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1984. The Panthers are 5-6 this year, but they have lost only to Division I teams or nationally ranked Division II teams.

“Every team we play has scholarships except the Ivy League schools,” Gustine said. “We’re kind of the lone wolf out there.”

Gustine hopes his team will survive and thrive by attracting good students who would like to continue playing high level, competitive tennis. He said the current team’s grade-point average is above 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Gustine is encouraged by the academic standing and the play of such new players as Andrew Bretherton, a freshman from England, Uwe Olivella, a sophomore from Germany, Ryan Scholer, a freshman from Beverly Hills High, and Jason Stephens, a freshman from Belleville (Ill.) Bishop Althoff High.

Add Panthers: Because of the Panthers’ No. 12 ranking in Division II, it will be difficult for them to make the eight-team NCAA tournament. Four teams from the West are ahead of Chapman in the poll, and it isn’t likely that more than three will receive bids.

But the Panthers can improve their position with a strong showing at this weekend’s Cal Poly San Luis Obispo tournament. They open Friday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in a match that will also count in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. standings because of an earlier rainout.

UC Davis, ranked second, Abilene Christian (Tex.), ranked fourth, and UC Santa Cruz, No. 1 in Division III, are the other entrants.

Notes

SCC’s David Black was named the NAIA District 3 pitcher of the week for the second consecutive week. Black allowed seven hits and two unearned runs in the Vanguards’ 6-2 victory over Cal Baptist, lowering his district leading earned-run average to 1.14. . . . The Southern California College softball team has received mention in the national NAIA poll for the first time in its history. The Vanguards (13-5, 5-1 in the GSAC) are among the others receiving votes, three spots out of the top 20. . . . The Christ College Irvine baseball team (18-7, 5-2) is also among others receiving votes in the latest NAIA poll. The Eagles remain a half-game behind Azusa Pacific (6-2 in conference), which, at No. 19, is the only District 3 team to be ranked.