UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : New Tennis Coach Has Hit the Court Running

Steve Clark has been piling up the 14-hour days, planning and preparing for his first big event since he replaced Greg Patton as the UC Irvine men’s tennis coach.

“I guess I kind of have one speed, and that’s fast,” said Clark, who also is tournament director for the Rolex-Southern California Regional championships that begin with qualifying rounds today in Irvine.

Besides preparing his own team--one that lost several key players, including Brett Hansen-Dent, who turned pro--Clark has been arranging the draws for the singles, doubles and qualifying tournaments, handling the umpteen details that arise, selling advertising and continuing to teach physical education classes.

And in the midst of the swirl of work, he received a cheery message from Patton, now the coach at Boise State.

“He said he doesn’t miss having to run the Rolex,” Clark said, laughing.

Clark is running on his natural intensity, an energetic nature that doesn’t seem to be accompanied by stress.

He is also riding the enthusiasm of returning to Irvine as a head coach. He was an Anteater assistant under Patton before taking the head job at Texas Tech for one season. Clark also was formerly the head coach at Chapman, where his team finished fourth in the nation in NCAA Division II in 1989.

His goals for Irvine aren’t very modest.

“Some people may think there’s no pressure because I inherited this team,” Clark said, “but I want to win. I want to win the conference, I want to finish in the top 25. We’ll have to work real hard.”

That’s this season. For the future?

“I don’t see any reason we can’t be in the top 10 on a consistent basis,” he said.

The Rolex-Southern California tournament will include top players from throughout the region, including an extraordinarily promising freshman, Sebastien LeBlanc of UCLA. LeBlanc, a Canadian, is top-seeded in the 64-player main draw. He earned that seeding with victories over second-seeded Laszlo Markovitz of UC Santa Barbara--who is ranked 11th in the nation--and fourth-seeded David Ekerot of USC. Laguna Beach’s Jonathan Leach of USC is seeded third.

Irvine competitors include sophomore Fred Bach, freshman Julian Foxon, junior Randy Ivey, senior Aaron Stolpman and sophomore Chris Tontz. Sophomore Marco Zuniga is rehabilitating his wrist after surgery this summer.

Though most of the matches will be played at UC Irvine, some will be contested at other area courts. Semifinal matches will be played Saturday. The singles final is at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, with the doubles final at noon. Admission is free.

The women’s Rolex-Southern California regional championships will be held at Irvine next week.

With back-to-back Big West Conference victories last weekend, the women’s volleyball team is in fifth place in the league.

“In my 13 years here, this was probably the most important set of wins,” Coach Mike Puritz said. “This puts us in pretty good shape to finish fifth, and the four teams ahead of us are all nationally ranked.”

Irvine came back from a two-game deficit to defeat San Jose State Friday--”the miraculous comeback,” Puritz said--and beat New Mexico State Saturday.

Puritz, whose team plays first-place Cal State Long Beach in Crawford Hall at 7:30 tonight, believes the Anteaters are in good position to earn a berth in the National Invitational Volleyball Championships, a secondary tournament to the NCAA championships.

Irvine last was invited to the NIVC in 1989, but was forced to decline for financial reasons. Puritz says that won’t happen this time.

“We would be OK,” he said. “I just talked to Barbara (Camp, acting athletic director).”

The long process of hiring an athletic director appears to be drawing to a close. There are no obvious major stumbling blocks in negotiations between the school and the only remaining finalist, Vic Cegles, an assistant athletic director at Arizona State.

Though the search committee reconvened Tuesday, it emerged apparently content to proceed without a lengthy review of its earlier work. Furthermore, though Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor for student affairs, will be away on business part of this week, he indicated Tuesday that he expects to name the athletic director within two weeks.

Jeff Von Lutzow, Keith Stewart and Craig Marshall have been named co-captains of the men’s basketball team by Coach Rod Baker. All three players are seniors.

The only other senior on the team is walk-on Uzoma Obiekea, who was dropped from the team by Baker last season but has returned.

“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Baker said.

Obiekea also should be helpful in practice as the only player beefy enough to go against center Dee Boyer, a transfer from Saddleback College.

With eight freshmen on her women’s team, Colleen Matsuhara said several have a chance to start. The contenders include 6-foot-2 center Allah-mi Basheer and guards Tamera Thomas and Davette Williams. For the second year in a row, Matsuhara isn’t assuring anyone--even returning starters--that they’ll hold on to their spot.

One of the most important tasks of the preseason will be finding a point guard after last year’s starter, Chrissy Chang, transferred. Williams, Thomas and sophomore Michelle Kahler are likely to compete for the spot.

Anteater Notes

The men’s soccer team (7-11) ends its season at 2 p.m. Sunday against the University of San Diego at Crawford Field. . . . The women’s soccer team finished with a 9-8-2 record and a school-record 10 shutouts. Sophomore Jaycee Leitner led the team in scoring with 10 goals and four assists. Goalkeeper Amee Chapman set school records with nine shutouts this season and 14 over three seasons. . . . The men’s and women’s swimming teams play host to the Mission Viejo Nadadores in an exhibition at noon Saturday at the Crawford Hall pool.