UPCOMING MATCHES

San Francisco Dons at UC Irvine Anteaters
Sat. Feb. 14, 2015 / 11:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium

UC Davis Aggies at UC Irvine Anteaters
Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 / 11:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium

FLOURISHING IN FEBRUARY

The Anteaters returned home to take a pair of high-octane tennis matches against Loyola Marymount and San Diego State.

A little tweak to the action in 2015 is doubles going away from the pro-set and will now play to six for the match. The Anteaters have won the doubles point in all four of their wins.

Kat Facey remained unbeaten in singles now at 4-0. Next on the list are Sarah Gong and Vivien Dvali with three singles wins each.

The 'Eaters have won 16 of 25 singles points, 12 of which coming by a sweep. All eight 6-0 sets have gone in favor of UC Irvine.

The Anteaters have stuck to the nearly the exact same lineup through five matches except for Andrea Duva bucking the trend at No. 6 singles against LMU:

Singles                                                                 Doubles
1 Sarah Gong                             Ali Facey and Kat Facey 1

2 Arisha Ladhani             Sarah Gong and Arisha Ladhani 2

3 Kat Facey                      Vivien Dvali and Mazy Watrous 3
4 Mazy Watrous

5 Ali Facey

6 Vivien Dvali

RANKINGS ROULETTE

The newest team and individual rankings came out with the 'Eaters left out after making the top-75 in each of the first three weeks. On the flip side, one opponent was added to the rankings in No. 47 Dartmouth, while previously-ranked Kansas State, who UCI lost to, 4-0, dropped from the rankings. Three other foes remain in the rankings in No. 41 LBSU, No. 54 Hawai'i, and No. 64 Denver.

The 'Eaters began the season with three ranked singles on their agenda; that list has now grown to six and briefly a seventh in Derya Tarhun of Marshall who has fallen from the rankings since being ranked No. 116 when she was defeated by Sarah Gong.

Fresno State's Sophie Watts remains the highest at No. 43 while previously-ranked Alina Soltanici of Sacramento State fell out after starting at No. 51. The third ranked singles player to start the season remains now stands at No. 51 in Andrea Ka of San Francisco. With the matchup between UCI and USF this week, a second Don dons the rankings in Marina Nikolic at No. 114

Two Big West opponents slide into the rankings in No. 99 Maeva Razakasoa of LBSU and freshman Lou Adler who stands at No. 93.

Lastly, the emergence of Dartmouth's Taylor Ng who is currently ranked No. 82 and is paired up with Kristina Mathis as doubles No. 40.

EARNEST 'EATERS

UC Irvine will look a lot different with six new faces joining the ranks. The vet of the bunch is sophomore Cassidy Branstine. A local product, she returns home after one season at Utah State.

Her cohorts are five freshmen. Three remain local in Riverside's Jennifer Andra, Valley Village's Vivien Dvali, and Rancho Palos Verdes' Gala Strong, a Northern California player in Burlingame's Alex Harrigan, and Vancouver, Canada-star, Arisha Ladhani.

After a 2014 season with no freshmen, the newcomers should be a welcomed sight. The 2013 Anteaters scored a combined 33-9 record from freshmen. 2015 freshmen have gone 3-1 in singles play.

FALL FINDINGS

Lots to look forward to coming out of the fall slate. With a good mix of veterans and newcomers, the 'Eaters  went 53-44 in singles matches led by Sarah Gong. Her 8-1 mark included winning the SDSU Invite Red Flight, consolation title at the ITA West Regionals, and an upset of No. 13 Michaela Cappanolo from Pepperdine. Andrea Duva also put up eight singles wins while newcomers Cassidy Branstine and Alex Harrigan impressed with six each.

Doubles play showed mixed results from a wide selection of pairings. Three duos won two of  three matches in their selected tournament while Vivien Dvali won four times between three tandems.

TURNING UP THE HEAT

UC Irvine finishes up its short home stint with a Saturday-Monday run against San Francisco and then UC Davis to open conference play.

USF has had a very turbulent 2015 season going 3-2 thus far following a 16-8 record in 2014. The Dons have gotten wins against Cal Poly and No. 66 Kansas State, but have thrown in losses to unranked San Jose State and Fresno State. USF has put together a seven-match win streak against Big West schools dating back to 2012.

USF keeps most of its formidable roster intact with seniors Marina Nikolic and Milica Hadzi-Tanovic holding down Nos. 3 and 4, Thyra Taune at No. 2, and 51st-ranked Andrea Ka holding the top spot.

UC Davis comes in on Monday morning to start Big West play. Davis finished fourth in the conference in 2014 going 12-10 overall. UCI took last year's match, 4-1, despite dropping the doubles point.

The 2015 season has the Aggies at 2-4 with tough, one-point losses to Pacific and Portland. They've also gone through a thorough overhaul of their roster with upperclassmen Layla Sanders and Tiffany Pham remaining to man slots 1 and 2. Freshman Lani-Rae Green has slipped into the top end of the lineup as well.