CMC75 Moments: Hinman/Au Win NCAA Doubles Title for 1988 Men's Tennis
As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you were a part of this great moment and would like to add to the memories, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moments, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.
Great Moments from 75 Years of Athletics
Frank Hinman and Lance Au Win 1988 NCAA Men's Tennis Doubles Championship
The CMS Men's Tennis program had already made a significant impact on the NCAA Division III level by the time the 1988 season rolled around. The Stags had a 1981 national title, and three individual singles champions (John Blomberg in 1976, A.J. Shaka in 1977 and Donovan Jones in 1981). The doubles title was still elusive, though as the Stags had reached the finals three times and ended as runners-up, including in 1987 when Frank Hinman and Paul Scholtz finished second. The following year, Lance Au joined the program as a freshman, and paired with Hinman, then a senior, for another long run at nationals in Virginia.
This time, the Stag duo prevailed in the finals, as Hinman and Au had to beat the top two doubles teams from the host school (Washington & Lee) in front of their home crowd in the semifinals and finals to prevail. The championship marked the first of six NCAA Doubles Championships that the program would win over the next three decades. Hinman (1985-88) and Au (1998-91) were both All-SCIAC selections all four seasons they played for the Stags, and Au added a runner-up finish in the NCAA Singles Championship as a senior in 1991.
As a team, the 1988 Stags finished with a perfect 12-0 record in SCIAC competition closing out with four 9-0 wins and two 8-1 wins in the second half of the double round-robin. The Stags then won the SCIAC title for the third year in a row, and ended up with a No. 9 national ranking. Pete Gertmenian joined Hinman and Au on the All-SCIAC team. Au won the SCIAC "B" singles title, Ashwin Gulati won the "C" title, Gertmenian and Matt Gleason teamed for the SCIAC "B" doubles title and Gulati and Kenji Hashimoto won the "C" doubles title, which were all crucial to giving the Stags enough points for a 21-20 win over Redlands in the SCIAC Tournament.
Lance Au:
I just felt fortunate to be on the team with senior Frank Hinman, and to be on the team with Coach Hank Krieger. It's not every day that a freshman gets to play with a senior on a doubles team, and Frank of course was the runner-up the year before, so he was one of the best doubles players in all of Division III when I arrived at the school. So I was very fortunate to be able to play with him, and I am thankful I got to play with him his senior year.
When we went to Nationals at Washington & Lee in Virginia, before we arrived, Washington & Lee had won the overall team national championship and they were riding on a high from that, playing at their own site with probably 200-300 fans in the stands cheering them on. When we advanced through the competition, we played Washington & Lee's No. 2 doubles team in the semifinals, and we prevailed narrowly and that was a crazy match to say the least with just myself, Frank Hinman and Coach Krieger there against what seemed like the entire school cheering on their No. 2 doubles team.
As we were preparing for the finals, we knew we were going to play their No. 1 doubles team and we knew it was going to be much of the same as it was the day before [as far as the crowd]. We were basically going into the lions den and playing a hot team and definitely playing a team that had a lot of momentum and crowd support. The thing that I remember the most is we got to match point, and Frank and I were talking about what to do and we basically decided that Frank would poach and help me out and that's exactly how it went down. I served the ball into the body of the Washington & Lee player and Frank ran across the court to take the poach, and the ball went into the net and we won.
For me, the win was a cumulation of many hard years of practice playing tennis. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the game and it just was a cumulation of that in finally winning a national title. As I look back on that, it's a special moment for me because that was the only national title I won in college, even though I came close my senior year. It was just a special moment.
I would say to make a doubles team to be any good, there needs to be some cohesiveness among the team and it took us a little time to find our groove before we became a really good doubles team. It just takes time to get to know your partner and what they are going to do in certain situations.
Frank Hinman:
Lance was such a great partner. The very first time we played together in practice, I told him we were gonna win Nationals. True story.
It definitely felt good to get a little revenge beating W&L teams at home back to back. Three years earlier, their guys had knocked my partner and me out with a lot of support from a tough crowd. This year we made friends with the water polo team through Coach Krieger's connection and in the semis I wore a W&L t-shirt that they had given us. I think the crowd was a little confused who to root for, but by the finals they had figured it out.
The weirdest thing I've ever seen on a tennis court happened in the finals. We were up 6-5 in the third set with Lance serving. On our first match point, I hit a drop shot that made it just over the net and bounced twice. Game set match, right? Only one of the W&L guys picks up the ball, shows it to the umpire and says it's popped. And it was - it had a split in the seam! We had just played a point with it. How did it pop? When did it pop? How did he know that it had popped? Anyway, the umpire calls it a let and we managed to win again on the next point. Unbelievable.
1988 Men's Tennis Roster
Head Coach: Hank Krieger
Assistant Coach: Diego Jaramillo
Mark Allison (So., CMC)
Lance Au (Fr., CMC)
Sean Clark (Fr., CMC)
Jim Folconer (Sr., HMC)
Pete Gertmenian (Jr., CMC)
Ben Giese (Fr., HMC)
Matt Gleason (Sr., CMC)
Josh Goldstein (Fr., CMC)
Ashwin Gulati (So., CMC)
Kenji Hashimoto (Fr., HMC)
Frank Hinman (Sr., CMC)
Justin Holman (So., CMC)
John Kang (So., HMC)
Dan Lindsay (Fr., CMC)
Ratana Ngo (Jr., HMC)
Erin O'Connor (Sr., HMC)
Mark Overly (Jr., HMC)
Kevin Reilly (So., CMC)
Scott Stokdyk (Fr., HMC)
Aki Yorishiro (So., CMC)