Irvine Defeats Louisiana State in Tennis as Patton Gets 300th Coaching Victory

UC Irvine, the fourth-ranked men’s tennis team in the nation, defeated No. 3 Louisiana State, 5-2, in a nonconference match at Baton Rouge Sunday to give Irvine Coach Greg Patton career coaching victory No. 300.

Irvine’s No. 1 doubles team of Mike Briggs and Trevor Kronemann defeated Mario Pacheo and Jed Schwing, 6-4, 6-1, to clinch the match. The teams agreed not to play the final two doubles matches.

Irvine’s Mark Kaplan (29-6) won at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Kronemann (26-13) defeated Johan Kjellsten, 6-4, 6-4, Richard Lubner won, 7-6, 6-4, and Shige Kanroji won, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2, for Irvine (22-6). LSU is 18-4.

Patton has a 13-year record of 300-158. He has a record of 237-115 at Irvine in 10 seasons. Patton also coached at Cal State Bakersfield for one year and two more years at UC Santa Barbara.