UPCOMING MATCHES
Binghamton Bearcats at No. 72 UC Irvine Anteaters
Tue. Apr. 7, 2015 / 10:00 AM
Anteater Tennis Stadium
ACES AND FAULTS
The 'Eaters' hot streak cooled a bit after winning one of three over the weekend. After a 12-1 March, UCI is now 1-2 in April.
UCI was cut short in matches to Fresno State, losing 4-3, and at No. 53 Cal Poly, losing 4-2. The 'Eaters' salvaged a win in the form of a 7-0 sweep of UC Riverside.
Jonathan Hammel won all three singles matches and went 1-1 in doubles including an unfinished set. He now has nine wins in his last 10 and is 12-3 since the beginning of March.
Nico Mertens built his win streak to 10 before falling on Friday. Sebastian Heim now has 11 wins in his last 13.
BREAK POINTS
UC Irvine continues to hang in the rankings now standing at No. 72 this week. It's the six week the 'Eaters have been ranked this season.
The highest-ranked Big West school is now Cal Poly at No. 53 with No. 60 UC Santa Barbara remaining hot on its tail. UC Irvine is currently 1-9 against schools in the rankings with the lone win over Boise State who was No. 45 at the time of the match. The 'Eaters have a win over No. 60 UCSB who has joined the rankings since their match.
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 178 career victories and is now in his 14th season as a collegiate head coach between his nine seasons at UCI and five at Cal Poly prior.
Sebastian 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.
A pair of juniors have joined him Tyler Pham and Nico Mertens who have each taken home Big West Athlete of the Week honors in consecutive weeks.
The 'Eaters have won the opening set in 98 of 160 singles matches. UCI has failed to secure that point on 13 occasions, however, it has comeback to win 13 times when dropping the opening set.
Jonathan Hammel leads the team being involved in six such scenarios; he's lost three points when winning the initial set and won three times when losing out of the gate. Sebastian Heim and Tyler Pham are 2-2 while Shuhei Shibahara has two wins compared to
one loss. Rafael Davidian is now 1-2 in those scenarios while Mertens added one of each over the weekend now at 2-2 on the year.
Other notes see Jonathan Poon a spotless 7-0 when winning the first set. Andrew Gong has win the opening set in all three of his matches posting a record of 2-1.
UCI has won 66 points in straight sets as opposed to 35 by its opponents. When a match goes to a third set, the 'Eaters are 22-18.
The Anteaters dropped its first match when No. 2 singles churns out win, but is still 11-0 when No. 5 singles does the same.
Doubles points have not been the best indicator of success on the year. UCI has won eight of 11 matches when it earns the early doubles point, however, it has also won four of seven matches its lost the doubles point in. When no doubles are played, UC Irvine is 3-4.
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.
BEARING DOWN THE STRETCH
The 'Eaters have a final non-conference contest to break up its four Big West matches down the stretch run.
UC Irvine welcomes Binghamton into Anteater Tennis Stadium on Tuesday, Apr. 7. The match was originally schedule for 1:00 p.m., but has been moved to 10:00 a.m. to escape the impending rain.
The Bearcats won its first two matches of the season before dropping 14 in a row. They've picked it back up with two straight conference wins to put them at 4-14 and middle of the pack in the Mid-American Conference. Eight of the losses have come against ranked opponents, however, BU is 0-9 in true road matches.
Junior Sid Hazarika leads the way at No. 1 singles with a 6-12 record to date. Senior Robin Lesage takes the reins at No. 2 with a 5-12 record. Junior Eliott Hureau has won three of his last five matches at No. 3 to improve to 8-8, and senior Ismael Dinia has a four-match win streak of his own to lead the squad with nine dual match wins.
Doubles have jumped even with a 25-25 mark on the season. Together, Lesage and Hureau have won nine matches including the last two at No. 1 singles.
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