UC Irvine (3-2) at
No. 17 UCLA (5-4)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 23
Time: 11 a.m. (PST)
Location: Los Angeles Tennis Center - Los Angeles, Calif.

Notes (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team will conclude its five-match road swing at No. 17 UCLA on Sunday, Feb. 23. First serve is set for 11 a.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
 
STORYLINES
• UC Irvine is riding a three-match win streak after defeating Sonoma State and Pacific on the road last week.
• Junior transfer Jeremy Merville did not drop a set in those two wins as he combined to go 4-0 in doubles and singles.
• Merville was named the Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for his effort.
• Freshman Ali Amiri clinched the 4-3 victory against the Tigers after outlasting his opponent, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 6 singles.
• Senior Daniel Gealer is the Anteaters' active singles wins leader with a 32-13 career mark in his two-plus seasons at UCI.
• Senior Bruce Man-Son-Hing earned his 40th career doubles victory in a 6-1 triumph at Saint Mary's on Feb. 9.
• Man-Son-Hing's 40 dual-match doubles wins are tied for 30th in program history.
• Sophomore transfer Mark Peneff and junior Mateusz Smolicki are unbeaten as a tandem at No. 1 doubles.
• Peneff/Smolicki are 3-0 since first teaming up together on Feb. 9.
• All 10 'Eaters saw action during the fall tournament season, combining for 47 singles and 18 doubles victories.
• Sophomore Mike Mkrtchian owns the best overall win percentage on the team at .769 (10-3, 2-1 dual).
• UC Irvine returns six letterwinners from a 2019 squad that went 15-8.
• UCI also made its fifth-straight appearance in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament in 2019.
• The Anteaters brought in four newcomers with two freshmen and two transfers.
• In their Division I history, the 'Eaters have made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• They have won 17 Big West regular-season championships and three Big West Tournament titles.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine showed its resiliency in a thrilling 4-3 win over Pacific last Sunday at Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center. After the Tigers took the first doubles match on court three, Daniel Gealer and Jeremy Merville evened it up with a 6-3 victory at No. 2. The doubles point then came down to the top of the lineup where Mark Peneff and Mateusz Smolicki found themselves down 5-2 in a tiebreaker. The 'Eater duo never wavered, fighting back for the 7-6 (5) win.
 
In singles, Merville gave UCI a 2-0 cushion with a 6-0, 7-5 triumph over Nathan Hampton at No. 4. The visitors went up 3-1 after Peneff dispatched Tadiwa Chinamo, 6-4, 7-5, at No. 2, but Pacific responded with wins at Nos. 1 and 5 to knot the overall score at 3-3. All eyes turned to the decisive match at the sixth spot where Ali Amiri was locked in a three-set battle with John Horoz Garner. After dropping the first set, Amiri dug deep for the biggest win so far in his young collegiate career, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
 
MERVILLE NAMED ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Junior Jeremy Merville was named the Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week on Feb. 19. It was his first weekly award, and the first for UCI in the young dual-match season. Merville led the charge in road wins over Sonoma State, 5-2, and Pacific, 4-3. He combined to go 4-0 in doubles and singles without dropping a set.
 
WEST COAST SWING
UCI played three of its first five matches against teams from the West Coast Conference. The Anteaters were 2-1 in those contests, defeating Saint Mary's and Pacific, while falling to San Francisco.

A GLANCE AT UCLA
UCLA (5-4) dropped one spot to No. 17 in the latest ITA Rankings released on Feb. 18. The Bruins also had three individuals ranked in singles - No. 8 Keegan Smith, No. 28 Govind Nanda and No. 124 Drew Baird. Nanda is tops on the squad with a 7-2 record at No. 2 singles. UCLA is coming off an appearance at the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championship where it fell to No. 4 Texas and No. 7 Texas A&M, before defeating No. 10 NC State in a consolation match.
 
UC Irvine and UCLA last met in 2018 with the Bruins taking a 7-0 victory in Los Angeles.
 
MATCH CLINCHER
Freshman Ali Amiri picked up the biggest win of his young collegiate career at Pacific on Feb. 16. With the match knotted at 3-3, Amiri finished off a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback victory at No. 6 singles to clinch the Anteaters' third-straight win.
 
DOUBLES KING
Senior Bruce Man-Son-Hing is a two-time All-Big West doubles selection. He earned first-team honors in 2018 and second-team recognition in 2019. In three-plus years, he has accumulated a 40-23 record. His 40 doubles wins are tied for 30th in school history.
 
SENIOR LEADER
Senior Daniel Gealer is UC Irvine's active singles wins leader. During his Anteater tenure, the UCLA transfer is 32-13 (.711) in dual-match play. Gealer needs eight more victories to become the 39th player in program history to reach the 40-win mark.
 
STEPPING UP
Junior Mateusz Smolicki has stepped into the No. 1 role this season, playing at the top of the lineup in both singles and doubles. In 2019, Smolicki earned All-Big West honors after picking up 12 singles and nine doubles wins.
 
FALL HIGHLIGHTS
Mateusz Smolicki won the consolation bracket at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships in Malibu, reeling off five-straight victories to claim the back draw title. Mike Mkrtchian finished with a team-best 8-2 record, picking up impressive wins over opponents from Pac-12 schools UCLA and Utah. In addition, he was the State Flight consolation champion at the Aztec Fall Invitational. In doubles, Aaron Bailey and Ali Amiri partnered for a team-leading 5-3 mark.
 
The LMU Invitational was a four-team tournament with each school squaring off in both singles and doubles over the course of three days (Nov. 8-10). Although the team results did not count, UCI went 3-0, defeating Utah, Utah State and Loyola Marymount.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine returns to Anteater Tennis Stadium in two weeks when it kicks off a 10-match homestand against Villanova (March 4) and Bucknell (March 8).