UC Irvine (5-5, 0-1 Big West) at
Hawai'i (2-2, 1-2 Big West)
Date: Saturday, April 3
Time: 3 p.m. (PDT)
Location: UH Tennis Complex - Honolulu, O'ahu

Notes (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team will embark on its first and only out-of-state trip during the regular season as it continues Big West play at Hawai'i on Saturday, April 3. First serve is set for 12 p.m. (HT)/3 p.m. (PDT).
 
STORYLINES
• Bjorn Hoffmann entered the Oracle ITA Singles Rankings on March 24, and is now 67th among the nation's top-125.
• Hoffmann, who has played every match at the top of the lineup, is 7-3 overall and 2-2 against ranked opponents.
• His first ranked victory came at San Diego (Feb. 14), where he took down then No. 60 August Holmgren, 6-3, 7-5.
• He also defeated No. 77 Alex Stater of Cal Poly, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, in UCI's Big West opener last Saturday.
• Hoffmann has been named the Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week three times this season.
• Matthew Sah has posted a 5-3 mark at Nos. 4 and 5 singles, with four of his wins coming in straight sets.
• Jeremy Merville and Mike Mkrtchian have chipped in four singles victories each.
• Mkrtchian has won his last two matches at the fifth spot in the lineup.
• Graduate transfer Jonathan Star picked up his first victory as an Anteater with a three-set triumph vs. Weber State (March 7).
• Ali Amiri delivered the final point in the season opener at LMU for his second career 4-3 match-clinching singles win.
• Bruce Man-Son-Hing owns a 48-26 (.649) career record in dual-match doubles.
• Man-Son-Hing's 48 victories are tied for 17th among UC Irvine's all-time doubles win leaders.
• In their Division I history, the 'Eaters have made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• They have finished first in the Big West standings 17 times and won three Big West Tournament titles.
• UCI has been named an ITA All-Academic Team (minimum 3.2 team GPA) in each of the last four years.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine fell to Cal Poly, 5-2, in its Big West opener at the Mustang Tennis Complex on Saturday, March 27. The Anteaters earned their points at No. 1 and No. 5 singles. Bjorn Hoffmann, who came in at No. 60 in last week's Oracle ITA Top-125, lived up to the billing as he defeated his second ranked opponent of the season. Hoffmann bounced back from a first-set loss to take down No. 77 Alex Stater, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, at the top of the lineup. Mike Mkrtchian also had an impressive performance on court five where he delivered a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Fernando Fonseca. It was Mkrtchian's second-straight win at the fifth position.
 
BIG WEST TRIFECTA
Bjorn Hoffmann earned his third Big West Athlete of the Week award on March 31, after posting a 2-1 singles record with wins over No. 77 Alex Stater of Cal Poly and Matteo Fortini of Portland State. His only loss came against 22nd-ranked Govind Nanda of UCLA. Hoffmann also received the conference's weekly honor on Feb. 10 and Feb. 17. The Newport Beach native is the first Big West player to collect three men's tennis athlete of the week accolades in one season, and is the first Anteater to accomplish the feat since Sebastian Heim in 2015.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Bjorn Hoffmann came in at No. 67 in the latest Oracle ITA Men's Tennis Singles Rankings released on March 30. He has been ranked as high as 60th this year. Hoffmann is 7-3 at the top of the lineup, with a 6-3, 7-5 marquee win over then No. 60 August Holmgren of San Diego on Feb. 14. That stands as Holmgren's only loss of the season as the Torero has since improved to 10-1 and moved up to No. 30 in the nation. Hoffmann also picked up a three-set win over No. 77 Alex Stater of Cal Poly on March 27. His three losses have come against top-ranked USC, No. 23 Pepperdine and No. 23 UCLA.
 
Hoffmann is in his first season at UCI as a grad transfer from Cal. In his time with the Golden Bears, he was ranked as high as 81st in singles and 22nd in doubles. He is the first Anteater to be featured in the Oracle ITA Singles Top-125 in four years.

SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
Hawai'i (2-2, 1-2 BWC) won its season and Big West opener against UC Riverside on March 22, before suffering back-to-back losses at Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara last week. Andre Ilagan is 2-2 at the top of the singles lineup, while Lucas Labrunie has posted a 2-0 mark at No. 2. Ilagan and Labrunie have also teamed up to go 2-1 at No. 1 doubles.
 
The Anteaters have won eight in a row against the Rainbow Warriors with their last loss in the series coming in 2014.
 
DOUBLES SPECIALIST
Senior Bruce Man-Son-Hing is a two-time All-Big West doubles selection, earning first-team honors in 2018 and second-team recognition in 2019. In his UCI career, Man-Son-Hing has accumulated a 48-26 dual-match doubles record. His 48 wins are tied for 17th in school history.
 
SAH POWER
Sophomore Matthew Sah, who has played at Nos. 4 and 5 in the lineup, ranks second on the team with five singles wins. The San Diego native earned straight-set victories against opponents from Weber State, San Diego State, USD and LMU, while also defeating Reece Falck of Fresno State, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 in an epic three-set battle. Sah set the tone for his 2021 season with an impressive performance back in July, when he won the ITA Summer Circuit event at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego (July 11-13, 2020). Sah went 5-0 over the course of three days.
 
STATEMENT MADE
Senior Jeremy Merville (Paris, France) has been a key contributor in the UC Irvine lineup ever since his arrival on campus prior to the 2019-20 campaign. In his first season with the 'Eaters, which was shortened due to the pandemic, the transfer from Nevada picked up a team-leading 13 overall singles wins. He owns a 10-6 career dual-match record at UCI, and was named the Big West Athlete of the Week on Feb. 19, 2020.
 
ANTEATER ROOTS
Bjorn Hoffmann has returned to his Orange County roots for his final season of eligibility. A Newport Beach native, Hoffmann has strong ties to UC Irvine with his parents, Carsten and Biljana, and his uncle, Zoran Korac, all being Anteater tennis alums. Both his father and mother still rank among UCI's all-time win leaders. Hoffmann is looking to finish out a stellar collegiate career himself, as he was a three-time ITA Scholar-Athlete as a member of the Cal men's tennis team. He was ranked 81st in singles and 22nd in doubles in the final Oracle/ITA Rankings of the 2019 fall season. Hoffmann finished his Golden Bear career with a 67-34 singles and 39-28 doubles record.
 
ALL-BIG WEST RETURNER
Senior Mateusz Smolicki, who played one season at USC, is in his third year with the Anteaters. As a sophomore in 2019, the Warsaw, Poland, native earned All-Big West honorable mention recognition in both singles and doubles. Last year, Smolicki played primarily at the top of the lineup and tied for second on the squad with 10 overall singles victories. Smolicki made his 2021 season debut in doubles at Pepperdine on March 12. Since his return to the court, Smolicki is 2-2 in doubles and 1-1 in singles.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine wraps up a three-match Big West road swing next week when it heads to UC Riverside on Thursday, April 8.