THE SCHEDULE

UC Irvine (2-4) vs.
St. Joseph's (0-1)
Date: Friday, Feb. 16
Time: 4:30 p.m. (PST)
Location: Springton Tennis Club – Philadelphia, Pa.

UC Irvine (2-4) vs.
Lafayette (4-0)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 17
Time: 11:00 a.m. (PST)
Location: Quakertown Tennis Zone – Quakertown, Pa.

UC Irvine (2-4) vs.
La Salle (0-3)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 18
Time: TBA (PST)
Location: Swarthmore, Pa.

Match Notes

The UC Irvine women's tennis team takes a rare trip to the east coast for a trio of road matches. The 'Eaters kick off the cross country trip with a game against St. Joseph's Friday, February 16 at 4:30 p.m. PT followed by a match at Lafayette Saturday, February 17 at 11:00 a.m. UCI will complete its trip at La Salle Sunday, February 18. Match time is TBA.

TOP 10 HITS
• UC Irvine picked up its first win against a Division I opponent last week with a 6-1 win over Idaho State.
• The 'Eaters travel to the east coast for a dual-match for the first time in program history.
• UCI welcomes back seven letterwinners while bringing in five newcomers for the 2018 campaign.
• Sophomore Stephanie Nguyen has two dual-match victories at No. 2 singles. She is 2-1 on the season in singles.
• The duo of Yulin Chen and Flora Amiri lead the 'Eaters with four doubles win this season primarily at the No. 2 spot.
• Last week, Nguyen picked up a win at No. 2 singles against ISU with a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
• Chen and Amiri have won three of their last four doubles matches.
• Stephanie Hazell played in her first dual-match since last season and earned a win at No. 1 singles against Idaho State.
• Head coach Elizabeth Ferris is in her second year at the helm.
• Senior Vivien Dvali is UCI's active career leader with 31 overall singles wins. 

LAST TIME OUT
UCI split a pair of games last week at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The 'Eaters dropped a 7-0 decision to BYU but it wasn't without a fight as three of the six singles matches went into three sets.  Arianna Tilbury lost a tough 6-4, 5-7, 13-11 decision at the No. 5 position while Stephanie Nguyen came up short at No. 1 (5-7, 6-2, 10-5) and Flora Amiri dropped on court four, 2-6, 7-6 (5-0), 10-7.  Stephanie Hazell and Danielle Garrido picked up the Anteaters' only win at No. 1 doubles with a 6-3.

The 'Eaters earned their first win against a Division I opponent as they toppled Idaho State, 6-1. UCI won the doubles point with victories at No. 2 and 3. In singles, Hazell, Nguyen, Yulin Chen, Flora Amiri and Arianna Tilbury won their respective matches.

VERSUS THE OPPONENTS
UCI will take its first dual-match season trip to the east coast in program history. It will be the first meeting between the Anteaters and all three of their opponents.  
SJU is 0-1 on the season with a 7-0 loss to Delaware.

Lafayette is 4-0 this year with its last win coming against Saint Peter's in October.  

La Salle enters the weekend with a 0-3 record. The Explorers have losses against Morgan State, Bucknell and Colgate.

FRESHMEN DUO
The freshmen tandem of Yulin Chen and Flora Amiri have teamed up to lead UCI in doubles wins. The young pair is 4-2 on the season with three of those wins coming at the No. 2 spot. Chen and Amiri also earned a victory at No. 1 doubles against Hope International, 6-1.

MEET THE 'EATERS
UC Irvine returns seven players and welcomes five newcomers, including four freshman and one transfer. Junior Danielle Garrido spent the last two seasons at San Diego Mesa where she won back-to-back junior college state singles titles. Freshmen Flora Amiri (Advantage Tennis Academy) and Clair Dean (Woodbridge HS) are both local products while Emily Valenciano hails from Yorba Linda, Calif. Yulin Chen prepped at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.  

11 of the 12 Anteaters on the roster are California products, while Yulin Chen is a native of Changsha, Hunan, China.

In addition to Amiri and Dean, Ashlynn Hall (San Clemente HS) and Stephanie Hazell (Pacific Academy) are also local Orange County products.

BACK ON TOP
Despite missing part of the 2017 due to injury, Vivien Dvali returns for her final season as UCI's active career leader with 31 overall singles wins. She is a two-time All-Big West selection and grabbed seven of her eight dual-match singles victories at the No. 2 spot last season.

TOP TALENT
Freshman Flora Amiri is a five-star recruit out of Advantage Tennis Academy who ranked 11^th in California and 60^th in the nation according to TennisRecruting.net.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Anteaters play 12 games at Anteater Tennis Stadium including a four-game homestand to cap Big West dual-match play in April. UCI rounds out the season at home against CSUN (Apr. 8), UC Santa Barbara (Apr. 14), Cal Poly (Apr.15) and UC Riverside (Apr. 21).

UP NEXT
UCI will kick off Big West play Friday, March 2 with a match at Long Beach State. First serve is slated for 2:00 p.m. PT.