UPCOMING MATCHES
Green Bay Phoenix at No. 75 UC Irvine Anteaters
Sat. Mar. 21, 2015 / 10:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
Eastern Washington Eagles at No. 75 UC Irvine Anteaters
Sat. Mar. 21, 2015 / 2:30 PM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
No. 75 UC Irvine Anteaters at Oracle Collegiate Tennis Challenge
Sun. Mar. 22, 2015 / TBD
Indian Wells Tennis Garden
HIGH FIVE
The Anteaters steamrolled through five matches in the span of 53 hours winning 33 of 35 total points
UCI earned sweeps of Youngstown State, Air Force, and Army while falling in doubles play to Georgetown, and relinquishing the lone singles point in No. 5 singles against Portland.
UC Irvine was led by Sebastian Heim, Tyler Pham, and Nico Mertens who each went 5-0 over the week. Heim swept through the No. 1 position, Mertens bounced between Nos. 3 and 4, and Pham cleaned up at No. 2 winning all matches in straight sets and scoring Big West Athlete of the Week honors.
The rest of the docket was filled in by Shuhei Shibahara (4-0), Jonathan Hammel (4-0), Jonathan Poon (3-0), Rafael Davidian (1-1), and Andrew Gong who made his collegiate debut at No. 6 singles against YSU and Army winning in straight sets.
The 'Eaters now have a seven-match win streak that has spanned over of six days. Some notable individual winning streaks show Heim at seven in a row, Mertens, Poon, and Shibahara at five, Hammel at four, and 13 consecutive wins for Tyler Pham.
SCHEDULE SUMMARY
UC Irvine returned to the rankings this week at No. 75 in the nation. It's the fourth week the 'Eaters have been ranked this season, and comes one week after falling out of the rankings.
The highest-ranked Big West school is now Cal Poly at No. 65 with No. 66 UC Santa Barbara and No. 68 UC Davis remains hot on their tails. UCSB fell to UCI earlier in the year, 4-3, when the Gauchos were unranked.
UC Irvine is currently 1-8 against schools in the rankings with the lone win over Boise State who was No. 45 at the time of the match.
UC Irvine has been added as a filler to the Oracle Challenge in Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The tournament consists of eight schools, six ranked, over three days, but BYU is unable to play on Sunday, so the 'Eaters will take its spot with the opponent and time to be determined.
BREAK POINTS
Anteater matches have seen 17 points going the way of the opening-set loser. Jonathan Hammel lost once over the weekend while Tyler Pham came back to win. Hammel has now been a part of four winning just once. Pham and Shuhei Shibahara have been a part of three each with each winning twice. Nico Mertens and Rafael Davidian each have a win and loss in both of their instances while Sebastian Heim now has a win and two losses.
Head Coach Trevor Kronemann's scored his 100th victory at UCI on Sunday when the Anteaters trumped UC Santa Barbara, 4-3, at Newport Beach Tennis Club. The win came in front of countless alums from each school who took place in an alumni doubles tournament prior to the match. Kronemann has amassed 165 career victories and is now in his 14th season as a collegiate head coach.
Heim has shone winning Big West Athlete of the Week award twice, January 23 and February 11. The last time UC Irvine had two freshman weekly award-winners was 2009 when Steven Henderson and Fabian Matthews shared the awards.
FALL FORWARD
The 'Eaters had some success over the summer, notably in the GCU Invite in Phoenix, Ariz. Junior transfer Nico Mertens took home the Flight 2 singles crown with four straight-set wins. Junior duo Tyler Pham and Jonathan Hammel followed suit with four doubles wins to take that crown as well.
Elsewhere, in the ITA West Regionals held in Malibu, Calif., Pham and freshman Sebastian Heim reached the round of 16 in singles beating USC and UCLA singles players along the way. Overall, UCI totaled a 27-18 singles record while coming up at 7-6 in doubles matches in the fall.
MYSTERY MARCH
The Anteaters pull back on the matches a bit with just three matches over the weekend.
Green Bay visits Irvine at 10:00 a.m. Saturday bringing a 10-5 record with it. The Phoenix are coming off a 4-1 loss in Fresno State and has also fallen to ranked Illinois, Minnesota, and Louisville squads.
The leader is senior Michael Tenzer currently ranked No. 124. He began the season at No. 77, and, thus far, is 9-4 as the No. 1 singles. Howard Scott and Leopold Gomez Islinger follow suit at Nos. 2 and 3.
Later Saturday afternoon will be a matchup with the Eastern Washington Eagles. EWU is 3-9 having lost five straight matches with one win over a DI program in Northern Colorado.
Robert Dula has had some success with five wins at No. 1 singles. Eduardo Bringold's 6-5 record is the lone winning record on the squad.
Lastly, a newer addition to the schedule on Sunday is the Oracle Collegiate Challenge at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The 'Eaters have been chosen to fill in for BYU who cannot play in Sunday's match of the tournament.
The Anteaters are scheduled to play sometime between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. depending on BYU's results in its first two matches.. UCI will match up with either No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 28 Cal, No. 29 Columbia, or Purdue.
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