IRVINE, Calif. --- The tennis season is upon us, and the Anteater got things going Thursday morning in Anteater Tennis Stadium defeating DII power UC Santa Cruz, 7-2.

The match featured three newcomers to the squad: Luca Marquard, Vatsal Bajpai, and Anil Patel. Patel and Marquard teamed up in doubles played falling 6-4 while Bajpai and Jonathan Poon scored a 6-2 victory. Sebastian Heim and Nico Mertens battled at No. 1 doubles, but were upended, 7-6, to UC Santa Cruz (0-1) giving UCSC the doubles point and the lead.

Singles went a little more in the favor of UC Irvine (1-0) with sweeps in six of seven spots including for all three newcomers. Nico Mertens was the only 'Eater to reach the third set taking the tiebreak against No. 2 Chad Leduff.

The match marked the first-ever dual match to be played in the fall. The 1-0 Anteaters now return to fall tournament season with the ITA All-American beginning on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma

UC IRVINE 7, UC SANTA CRUZ 2
October 1, 2015
Anteater Tennis Stadium

Doubles
1) Richter/Sirovica (UCSC) def. Heim/Mertens (UCI) – 7-6
2) Bajpai/Poon (UCI) def. Hollister/Leduff (UCSC) – 6-2
3) Levchenko/Stone (UCSC) def. Marquard/Patel (UCI) – 6-4

Singles

1) Sebastian Heim (UCI) def. Chadwick Stone (UCSC) – 6-1, 6-1
2) Nico Mertens (UCI) def. Chad Leduff (UCSC) – 6-3, 3-6, (10-6)
3) Luca Marquard (UCI) def. Adrian Sirovica (UCSC) – 6-2, 6-4
4) Vatsal Bajpai (UCI) def. James Soper (UCSC) – 7-6, 6-3
5) Anil Patel (UCI) def. Sean Hollister (UCSC) – 6-4, 6-1
6) Justin Agbayani (UCI) def. Derek Levchenko (UCSC) – 6-4, 6-0
7) Jonathan Poon (UCI) def. Garrett Deguchi (UCSC) – 7-5, 6-4