Five Home Matches for the Anteaters This Week
March 10, 2014 | Men's Tennis
UPCOMING MATCHES
Georgetown Hoyas vs. UC Irvine Anteaters
Tues. Mar. 11, 2014 - 10:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
Richmond Spiders vs. UC Irvine Anteaters
Tues. Mar. 11, 2014 - 3:00 PM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
Radford Highlanders vs. UC Irvine Anteaters
Thurs. Mar. 13, 2014 - 3:00 PM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
Army Black Knights vs. UC Irvine Anteaters
Sat. Mar. 15, 2014 - 11:00 AM
Newport Beach Tennis Club
Penn Quakers vs. UC Irvine Anteaters
Sun. Mar. 16, 2014 - 10:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
DROP SHOTS
UCI has a two wins in a row and have taken nine of 12 singles matches along with both doubles points.
Rafael Davidian scored a big win defeating No. 103 David Sofaer of Pepperdine in straight sets. The win is the first over a ranked opponent since Tyler Pham defeated 109th-ranked Derek Siddiqui of San Diego State early in 2013.
SERVICE ACES
The 'Eaters schedule consists of seven schools ranked in the ITA preseason rankings. UCI has one win in six matches against ranked opponents, thus far, with a win over No. 67 Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
UC Irvine will face seven schools that reached the 2013 NCAA Tournament including championship runner-up UCLA and the Pepperdine Waves who reached the Elite Eight.
Amongst UCI's opponents are 11 ranked singles players that all land in the top-80. UCI singles are currently 1-8 against them.
BACKHAND WINNERS
UCI dropped three ranked teams in 2013: Fresno State, Cal Poly, and Pacific.
UCI is coming off its 14th Big West regular season title in 2013.
Head Coach Trevor Kronemann won his 150th career match when UCI defeated UC Davis in 2013.
Ryan Cheung is the squad's lone senior. He comes into 2014 with 32 career singles wins and 41 career doubles wins.
The Anteaters were ranked No. 75 in early February of 2013. UCI has been ranked 74th and 75th so far in 2014.
HIGH FIVES
UCI plays five tennis matches this week, all of which take place at Anteater Tennis Stadium. Leading off is a doubleheader with Georgetown and Richmond.
The Hoyas come at 5-5 after going 12-9 in 2013 with wins over Richmond and Boston College along with a 7-0 loss at the hands of UCSB.
Daniel Khanin, Shane Korber, and Casey Distaso lead the Hoyas as their top three having won four matches each. Doubles are an even 11-11 with the duo of Yannik Mahlangu and Jack Murphy as the only pair to play more than three matches together.
Richmond has endured rough weather in the early going and sit at 5-8 through 13 matches, all on the road. The Spiders still have four more until they return home.
Notable matches have been wins over Temple and Liberty along with losses at Old Dominion, Georgetown, and William & Mary.
Ethan Dunbar holds the No. 1 singles at 7-7. Jesse Feder flanks him at No. 2 at 9-5. Nine different doubles pairs have competed with Sebastien Fauchet and Aaron Wicker finding the most success with a 3-2 record at No. 1.
Radford comes in on Thursday in the midst of a California swing. The Highlanders lost, 6-1, at UCSB, and have a pair of losses against ranked squads.
Radford will play at Cal Poly Tuesday before heading over to UCI. The Highlanders have nine singles wins and two doubles wins on the year. Nicholas Sayer comes in as the No. 1 with a 2-3 record and has partnered with Patrick O'Keefe as No. 1 thus far with a 1-3 record.
Army comes in at 7-2 so far in 2014 after a very successful 16-7 mark in 2013. The Black Knights tripped up against Air Force after early-season wins against Monmouth and Connecticut.
Sam Lampman has taken over the No. 1 singles is 5-1, 7-1 overall. Grant Riechmann also has seven singles wins jumping between the 1-2-3 slots. The Black Knights' doubles pairs have at least five wins in each position.
The 'Eaters end with Penn, a 2-5 Ivy League school who finished 9-11 in the Ivy League in 2013. Thus far, the Quakers have near misses against Marquette and Penn State, and will play UCSB, SDSU, and Cal Poly before finishing the week at UCI.
Freshman Matt Nardella has been the bright spot for Penn with a 6-1 record.
FALL TENNIS
Tyler Pham made the most noise in fall play defeating No. 22 Tommy Bennett of Rice en route to a third round berth in the ITA pre-qualifier.
Pham reached the fourth round in the USTA/ITA Southwest Regionals to finish the fall with a 4-2 record.
Caryl Hernandez went 7-6 including a trip to the consolation final in the So Cal Intercollegiates resulting in a loss to UCLA's Seth Stolar.
The 'Eaters added one new player in junior transfer Rafael Davidian. The native of Germany joined UC Irvine from Utah went 21-14 in two years there which included a ranking of No. 124 as a freshman while also beating USC's Yannick Hanfmann who was ranked No. 38 at the time.
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