Slow-Starting Taino Moves Into NCAA Quarterfinals

UCLA’s Eric Taino survived another scare Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I men’s individual tennis championships at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

However, top-seeded Thomas Dupre of Mississippi State and sixth-seeded Cedric Kauffman of Kentucky were not as fortunate.

Taino, seeded third, was inconsistent in his second-round match against Fredrik Giers of Fresno State, 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (2).

“I don’t want it as much in the first set. I definitely need to start earlier or I’m going to lose pretty soon,” Taino said.

He did lose too--in doubles.

Later in the day, Taino was part of a doubles team with Alex Decret that lost to Georgia’s Steven Baldas and Rafael Jordan, 6-4, 6-4. UCLA’s doubles team of Kevin Kim and Eric Lin was also upset by a Georgia team. John Roddick and Kevin Sessions beat Kim and Lin, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Dupre lost to Miami’s Ivan Rodrigo, 6-4, 6-0. Kauffman was beaten by Nevada Las Vegas’ Luke Smith, 6-3, 6-3.

That means that only three of the top eight seeded players in the singles competition remain for today’s quarterfinals--No. 2 Fredric Niemeyer of Middle Tennessee, Taino and No. 7 Ryan Wolters of Stanford.

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In the women’s NCAA tournament at Stanford, the Cardinal’s Lilia Osterloh and Florida’s M.C. White advanced to today’s championship match. It will be the first all-freshman final.

Eighth-seeded Osterloh upset top-seeded Karin Miller of Duke, 6-1, 6-1, in an all-freshman semifinal, breaking Miller’s serve time.

White defeated Julie Scott of Stanford, 7-5, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

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Boise State’s Greg Patton has been named the NCAA men’s coach of the year.

It’s the second time Patton, 44, has received the honor. He also was recognized in 1987, when he coached at UC Irvine.

Patton, in his fifth season at Boise State, led the Broncos to a season record of 30-4 and a season-long top-10 ranking. Boise State reached the second round of the NCAA team championships earlier this week.