IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team is back in action this week as it heads to Malibu for the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Oct. 17-20. Matches will be held at Pepperdine's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
 
The tournament is one of 12 NCAA Division I ITA Regionals across the country. The singles and doubles finalists from each region will qualify for the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships.  
 
QUICK HITS
• All 10 members of the UC Irvine men's tennis team will be competing at the ITA Regional this week.
• The Anteaters combined for 16 singles and nine doubles wins at the Aztec Fall Invitational (Oct. 4-6).
• The young duo of Aaron Bailey and Ali Amiri saw early success as they went 3-0 to win their doubles flight.
• Mike Mkrtchian and Mateusz Smolicki both went 3-1 in singles play to lead the 'Eaters.
• UCI returns six letterwinners from a 2018-19 squad that went 15-8.
• They also made the program's fifth consecutive appearance in the Big West semifinals.
• Bruce Man-Son-Hing and Daniel Gealer are the Anteaters' only seniors on this year's 10-man roster.
• Head coach Mike Saunders is in his fifth season at the helm.
 
ITA REGIONAL REWIND
The Anteaters won four of their six singles matches in the first round of the 2018 ITA Southwest Regional Championships at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. Returners Aaron Bailey, Daniel Gealer and Mike Mkrtchian were part of that group. Mateusz Smolicki, Bruce Man-Son-Hing and Antoine Barthe also picked up a win in the consolation bracket last year.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The 'Eaters got off to a strong start at the Aztec Fall Invitational hosted by San Diego State, Oct. 4-6. Junior Mateusz Smolicki and sophomore Mike Mkrtchian both went 3-1 in singles and won the consolation title in their respective flights. At the end of a long weekend, Smolicki dug deep to defeat Grand Canyon's Valentin Lang, 1-6, 6-3, 11-9, in the Aztec Flight consolation championship match. In the consolation final of the State Flight, Mkrtchian cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Fraser Leslie of UC San Diego.
 
Freshman Matthew Sah also impressed in his collegiate debut, going 2-2 to finish fourth in a field of 16 competitors in the State Flight. Sah advanced to the semifinals, defeating opponents from GCU and Arizona, before coming up short in a three-setter against the host Aztecs' Jules Auffray. In the third-place match, Sah put up a fight, but eventually dropped a 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 decision to Alex Scemanenco (SDSU).
 
In doubles action, freshman Ali Amiri and sophomore Aaron Bailey claimed the Flight B doubles title, finishing the tournament with a 3-0 record. They edged teammates Antoine Barthe/Mike Mkrtchian, 7-5, in the championship match. In Flight A, senior Daniel Gealer and junior Jeremy Merville finished fourth overall, while Sah and sophomore Mark Peneff were the runners-up in the back draw.
 
2018-19 HIGHLIGHTS
Mateusz Smolicki garnered 2019 All-Big West honorable mention recognition in both singles and doubles. He played primarily at the No. 3 singles position, finishing with 12 wins, seven of which came over his last 10 matches.
 
Bruce Man-Son-Hing is a two-time all-conference doubles selection, earning first-team honors in 2018 and second-team accolades in 2019. He had 18 overall doubles wins and went 15-4 during the dual-match season last year.
 
Daniel Gealer is coming off a junior campaign in which he registered a team-high 20 overall singles wins (14-6 dual).
 
UC Irvine was named a 2018-19 ITA All-Academic Team, while leading the Big West with six individual Scholar-Athlete recipients.
 
MEET THE NEWCOMERS
UC Irvine welcomes four newcomers with two freshmen and two transfers. Jeremy Merville joins the Anteaters after spending two years at Nevada. As a freshman in 2017-18, he entered the Wolf Pack's all-time top-10 in both singles (22) and doubles (14) victories.
 
Sophomore Mark Peneff played one year at Glendale Community College where he was the Western State Conference singles champion and doubles runner-up.
 
Freshmen Ali Amiri and Matthew Sah are both four-star recruits from Southern California. Amiri is a local product out of Irvine. Sah, a San Diego native, was a CIF state champion in doubles.
 
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
For the sixth year in a row, UCI's roster features multiple international players. Antoine Barthe and Jeremy Merville are natives of France, while Mateusz Smolicki hails from Poland.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine has two more tournaments on its fall schedule, traveling to the LMU Invitational and the So Cal Intercollegiate Championship in November. Both tournaments will be held in Los Angeles from Nov. 7-10.