COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Irvine Men Put Themselves in Position to Claim Big West Tennis Title

Coach Greg Patton believes it will take an act of God to keep his UC Irvine men’s tennis team from winning the Big West Conference championship today at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.

“There’s going to have to be an earthquake here tomorrow to take the conference championship from us,” said Patton, after watching the Anteaters win 17 of 18 matches Friday and Saturday at the Ojai Valley Racquet Club.

Five of Irvine’s six singles players, led by Brett Hansen-Dent, will compete today for flight championships, and all three doubles teams are also alive for flight titles.

Hansen-Dent, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Brandon Coupe of San Jose State Saturday, will face David Decret of UC Santa Barbara in the No. 1 flight final.

Irvine finished with 44 points after two days of play, five points ahead of UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State.

“That’s better than I thought it would be,” Patton said. “It feels glorious to win that many matches.”

Marco Zuniga was the Anteaters’ lone loser, falling to Nils Koitka of Fresno State, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Patton was particularly pleased with Irvine’s strength at the bottom end of its ladder. Fred Bach, Neel Grover and Aaron Stopleman all provided key victories Saturday.

Bach beat Fresno State’s Mike Noel, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4; Grover downed Mark Ellison of UC Santa Barbara, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, and Stopleman defeated John Fox of UC Santa Barbara, 6-3, 6-3.

In the women’s division, the upset streak of Cal State Fullerton’s Roseann Alva came to an abrupt end when she lost to Debbie Goldberger, a UC Santa Barbara senior from Edison High, 6-2, 6-2, in the No. 1 flight finals.

Goldberger, who is ranked 75th on the Volvo Tennis/Collegiate Rankings, was named the conference’s player of the year as the Gauchos successfully defended their title with 43 points. The Anteaters were fourth with 36, and Fullerton was tied for seventh with Cal State Long Beach with 11.

Two Irvine women won individual flight championships. Cory Crigger dropped UNLV’s Janelle Barr, 7-6, 6-0, in the No. 4 final, and Gina Garcia defeated Casey Peterson of Hawaii, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 6.

In Big West Conference softball:

Cal State Fullerton 2-3, Utah State 1-0--The Titans (36-17, 18-10) moved into second place in the conference with the sweep at Utah State.

In the opener, Tiffany Boyd (26-5) won her 18th consecutive game, pitching a five-hitter and striking out seven. Boyd’s streak equals the fourth-best in NCAA Division I history. Marci White had Fullerton’s lone RBI, singling in Denise DeWalt. White scored on an error by left fielder Kari Hagen later in a two-run first inning.

In the second game, freshman Cheryl Longeway (10-12) pitched a three-hitter. DeWalt singled in Jennifer Shuey and K.C. Clark followed with a two-run single in the third.

The sixth-ranked Titans took three of four from the seventh-ranked Aggies (32-18, 17-11), who fell into third in the conference.

In Golden State Athletic Conference softball:

Cal Baptist 3-6, Southern California College 1-1--Tracy Schofield had three hits and two walks for host Southern California College (24-11, 8-8). Cal Baptist improved to 17-26-1, 13-3 with the doubleheader sweep.

In the U.S. Intercollegiate golf tournament:

UC Irvine 12th--The Anteaters trail Pacific by 23 shots, but they are only seven shots behind four schools tied for eighth at Stanford.

William Yanigisawa shot a one-over-par 143 to go into a four-way tie for 12th, four strokes off the individual lead.