TENNIS : NCAA Singles Play Starts at Northridge

Nicolas Renard and Kevin Seinbloom, both of Cal State Northridge, are among 64 players participating in the singles competition at the Division II individual tennis championships, which begin at 8 a.m. today at CSUN.

Renard (13-7) plays Stephen Martin of Hampton University of Virginia in the first round, and Seinbloom (12-8) opens against Eduardo Afini, also of Hampton. Second-round play begins at approximately 10 a.m. First-round doubles play begins at 12:30 p.m. Participants were invited on the basis of their rankings.

Net earnings: Cal Lutheran’s men’s tennis team won the District III tournament last weekend at home. Chris Groff, CLU’s No. 1 singles player, won the individual championship by beating teammate Truls Midtbo, 6-0, 7-6.

Cal Lutheran will travel to Kansas City, Mo., for the NAIA tournament May 18-22.

Deceiving appearances: Even though Pierce College had four singles players and three doubles teams entered in the Southern California regional last week at Pierce, none qualified for the state tournament.

Robert Grundy, the Western State Conference singles champion, lost to Nadir Fararji, an ex-Pierce player now competing for Cerritos. Fararji won the tournament. John Freeman, Alex Olaya and Dave Valastro all were ousted in the round of 16.

Freeman had been ranked No. 7 in the state and Pierce was No. 2 in team rankings.

In the doubles, Grundy and Olaya, ranked No. 3 in the state, were defeated by MiraCosta’s David Mercado and Tom Green. Valastro and Dereck Messama, and Freeman and Mike Rosenthal also were eliminated.

Add Pierce: Coach Paul Xanthos said some of his players offered what he thought was a poor excuse for their poor showing.

“They’re telling me that they were tired,” Xanthos said. “They shouldn’t be tired at this point in the season. They should be in great shape. We just finished three weeks of tournaments.

“Well, maybe not mentally, but physically they had to be in great condition.”