USC’s Unranked Moore Walks Away With Title

Once his journey to the men’s Pac-10 individual singles championship was complete, USC’s Ryan Moore looked into the Libbey Park stands, acknowledged his parents and pumped his fist, realizing a longtime dream.

“Unbelievable,” a beaming Moore said Sunday after beating Stanford’s K.J. Hippensteel, 6-3, 6-2, in the featured event at the 101st Ojai Valley tennis tournament. “I used to watch those guys and always wonder if I could do it. Well, today I did it.”

Moore won an Ojai junior title at 14 and won the boys’ CIF division as a senior at Anaheim Servite High in 1998. With the victory, Moore, unranked nationally, will probably receive an at-large berth into the NCAA individual regional tournament in two weeks.

Last year’s NCAA singles champion Alex Kim teamed with Hippensteel to win the Pac-10 doubles, 6-1, 6-1, over Olivier Charroin and Pim Van Mele. Stanford won the unofficial team title--the Thacher Cup--with 14 points. UCLA finished second with 10 points.

Arizona State’s Adria Engel lived up to her top seeding, taking the Pac-10 women’s singles final, 7-5, 6-2, over Raquel Kops-Jones of California. UCLA’s Sara Walker and Mariko Fritz-Krockow beat teammates Lauren Fisher and Petya Marinova, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, in the doubles final.

Pacific won its first Big West team championship with a 4-0 victory over Irvine. In the women’s Big West final, No. 1 Long Beach State lost to Boise State, 4-3.