DeVera Rekindles Memories With Win

Faye DeVera couldn’t have asked for a better ending to a tough freshman season. DeVera, who had an outstanding career at Villa Park High and was the country’s 20th-ranked junior player last year, barely played for 11th-ranked Arizona State this season.

But Sunday afternoon at Libbey Park, in front of her parents and friends, DeVera and Kerry Giardino won the Pac-10 invitational women’s doubles title over Arizona’s Vanessa Abel and Michelle Gough, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

The championship was DeVera’s fourth at the Ojai tournament and it came on the same court that she won the girls’ 18 singles title last year. DeVera, who was sharp throughout most of the 2-hour, 15-minute match, finished off Arizona with two forehand return winners down the line.

“I just feel like I’m at home up here,” DeVera said. “It’s been kind of a hard season, but this was nice.”

Paul Reber, Arizona State’s assistant women’s coach, said DeVera was on top of her game all week.

“Faye didn’t play a whole lot in dual matches for us,” he said. “For her to play this well with Kerry is great.”

DeVera and Giardino, a sophomore from Palos Verdes Peninsula who won the invitational singles in the morning, appeared to be in for a short afternoon--leading 6-4, 3-0. But Giardino and DeVera began making unforced errors and Abel and Gough picked up their net play.

“They just stopped moving,” Reber said. “But then they got it back at the end of the second set and they kept it up in the third.”

Said DeVera: “I was on and off. I’d play well for a few games, then lose it.”

Entered in the Pac-10 invitational singles and doubles at Ojai, DeVera played nearly as much in four days as she did all season for the Sun Devils. During the regular season, she was 2-0 in singles and 4-2 in doubles in dual matches.

DeVera, a three-time Times Orange County girls’ tennis player of the year, expected much more out of her freshman season.

“Of course, it’s frustrating,” DeVera said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. But I know we have a good team. I just have to make sure I keep [playing well] this summer.”

Another county player, Geoff Abrams of Newport Harbor, won the Pac-10 men’s invitational doubles with his Stanford partner, Charles Hoeveler. They defeated UCLA’s Jason Cook and Vince Allegre, 7-5, 7-5.

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Second-seeded UC Santa Barbara knocked off top-seeded Boise State, 4-2, to win the Big West Conference men’s championship, ending Bronco Coach Greg Patton’s run of six consecutive conference titles.

In the Big West Conference third-place match, UCI beat New Mexico State, 4-3. David Chang won a key match at No. 4 singles, beating Yven Heine, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5). Thomas Bohun and Nick Varvais won at No. 1 and No. 2 singles in straight sets.

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In the independent men’s college singles, Jussi Ala Opas of Azusa Pacific defeated Stefan Johansson of Southern California College, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8).