Villanova (3-4) at
UC Irvine (3-3)
Date: Wednesday, March 4
Time: 1 p.m. (PST)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium

Bucknell (5-5) at 
UC Irvine (3-3)
Date: Sunday, March 8
Time: 1 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium

at Pacific Coast Doubles Championship
Dates: Thursday-Sunday, March 5-8
Location: La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
Live Results

Notes (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team begins an 11-match homestand when it hosts Villanova at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4. The 'Eaters will then take a short break from dual-match play as they head south to La Jolla, Calif., for the Pacific Coast Open Doubles Championship (March 5-8). They will return to Anteater Tennis Stadium on Sunday, March 8, for a 1 p.m. showdown with Bucknell.
 
STORYLINES
• Junior transfer Jeremy Merville earned UC Irvine's first Big West Athlete of the Week award of the season on Feb. 19.
• Merville did not drop a set in wins at Sonoma State and Pacific as he combined to go 4-0 in doubles and singles.
• Freshman Ali Amiri clinched a 4-3 victory over 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 32-14 career mark in his two-plus seasons at UCI.
• Senior Bruce Man-Son-Hing earned his 41st career doubles victory against No. 17 UCLA.
• Man-Son-Hing's 41 dual-match doubles wins rank 30th in program history.
• Sophomore transfer Mark Peneff and junior Mateusz Smolicki are 3-1 at No. 1 doubles.
• Peneff/Smolicki first teamed up on Feb. 9, winning three straight before falling 7-6 (4) to a UCLA duo ranked in the top-25.
• 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 saw its three-match win streak come to an end with a 4-0 loss to No. 17 UCLA at Los Angeles Tennis Center on Sunday, Feb. 23. The Anteaters took the Bruins down to the wire in doubles. Matthew Sah and Bruce Man-Son-Hing got off to a strong start in their debut as a tandem, defeating Drew Baird/Max Wild, 6-4, at No. 3. UCLA then evened it up with a win on court two. The doubles point was ultimately decided by a tightly-contested match at the top of the lineup. After trailing, 4-1, Mateusz Smolicki and Mark Peneff fought all the way back to knot it up at 5-5, and again at 6-6. They continued their seesaw battle with the 24th-ranked duo of Govind Nanda/Keegan Smith in the tiebreaker where they were locked in a 3-3 battle. The Bruins then made one final push to pull out the 7-6 (4) victory. UCLA carried the momentum into singles with wins at Nos. 1, 2 and 5 to clinch the match.
 
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.
 
PACIFIC COAST DOUBLES
The 131st Annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championship will be held at La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, March 6-8. The 'Eaters have five duos entered in the tournament.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Villanova (3-4) most recently fell to Navy, 6-1, and Morgan State, 4-0, in a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 22. The Wildcats will play at UC Riverside before making their way to Irvine. Nova returns seven letterwinners from last year's squad that went 12-12. Senior Tyler Roth earned second-team All-BIG East honors in 2019.
 
This is the fourth year in a row UCI will host Villanova at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The 'Eaters won 6-1 in 2017 and 2019, and swept the Wildcats, 7-0, in 2018.
 
Bucknell (5-5) is coming off a 5-2 victory over Saint Joseph's. Junior Marwan Abaza leads the Bison with eight singles wins, all coming at the top of the lineup. Abaza also owns a team-best six doubles victories.
 
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.
 
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 41-23 record. His 41 doubles wins rank 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 32-14 (.696) in dual-match play. Gealer needs eight more victories to become the 39th player in program history to reach the 40-win mark.
 
FALL HIGHLIGHTS
Junior 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. Sophomore 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.
 
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 has two matches next week, hosting SMU (March 10) and East Carolina (March 12).