DROP SHOTS

UCI did not lose in the eight matches that No. 1 singles won. It won 10 of 11 times No. 6 singles was victorious.

UCI has won 55 of 63 singles matches in which it won the first set. It has also come back to win 13 matches when dropping the opening set.

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.

BREAK POINTS

Tyler Pham leads all 'Eaters with 13 dual match wins. His 11 wins at No. 2 singles is the most of any 'Eater at any single position.

Tyler Pham and Rafael Davidian each hold a 3-2 mark against Big West competition.

Including fall action, Caryl Hernandez leads UCI with 19 overall wins (12 dual, 7 fall).

Rafael Davidian enter the tournament on a four-match win streak. Caryl Hernandez boasts the season's longest win streak at seven. Tyler Pham and Shuhei Shibahara have also had win streaks of four matches on the year.

BIG WEST TOURNAMENT

UCI enters the Big West tennis tournament as the No. 5-seed, the lowest the 'Eaters have finished since 2006.

In the tournament era, UCI has never finished lower than third place. The 2013 champion was fifth-seeded UCSB. The Anteaters have won three of the last four times they reached the Big West final.

UCI matches up with UC Davis in the opening round. The Aggies defeated UCI, 6-1, in Davis, Calif. back on March 30.

The Aggies swept doubles play and won each singles position save for Tyler Pham at No. 2 singles.

The Aggies fourth-place finish is its highest in the regular season since joining the Big West. They reached the tournament semifinal just once back in 2012.

On the year, UC Davis stands at 13-10 and will finish with its first winning record since joining the Big West. It's previous high was 10 wins in a single season in 2008.

The Aggies are 2-3 in Big West play with wins over UCI and UCR, one-point losses to Hawai'i and Cal Poly, and a two-point loss at UC Santa Barbara.

The projected lineups look like this with records by position for each player or duo:

Doubles: UC Irvine - UC Davis

1 Hammel/Pham (4-4) vs. Adamson/Levie (8-10)
2 Cheung/Poon (4-4) vs. James/Kelley (7-4)
3 Hernandez/Shibahara (1-0) vs. Bacharach/Luba (6-3)

Singles: UC Irvine - UC Davis

1 Ryan Cheung (7-16) vs. Alec Adamson (8-5)
2 Tyler Pham (11-7) vs. James Wade (6-1)
3 Jonathan Hammel (5-10) vs. Kyle Miller (2-1)
4 Rafael Davidian (7-3) vs. Brett Bacharach (5-3)
5 Caryl Hernandez (6-6) vs. Parker Kelley (5-6)
6 Shuhei Shibahara (2-4) vs. Bryce McKelvie (7-1)

Elsewhere in the field, UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside play in the other first round matchup on Thursday. The winner of that draw will play Cal Poly. UCI and UC Davis will play to face No. 1-seeded Hawai'i with all semifinal matches coming Fri. Apr. 25 at 3:00 p.m.

The championship match will be Sun. Apr. 27 at 9:00 a.m. for the Big West title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

SERVICE ACES

The 'Eaters schedule consists of seven schools ranked in the ITA preseason rankings. UCI has one win in eight matches against ranked opponents, thus far, with a win over No. 67 Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

UC Irvine faced 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.

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.