BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS
Semifinals
No. 2 UC Irvine (10-5, 5-1 Big West) vs.
No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (7-5, 4-2 Big West)
Date: Saturday, May 1
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Orange County Great Park - Irvine, Calif.
Live Stats // Championship Central

Championship Match
Date: Sunday, May 2
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Orange County Great Park - Irvine, Calif.
Live Stats // Championship Central

Notes (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. - The second-seeded UC Irvine men's tennis team will open the Big West Championships in a 12 p.m. semifinal match against No. 3 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, May 1, at the Orange County Great Park. 
 
BIG WEST NOTABLES
UC Irvine secured the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the 2021 Big West Championships with a 5-1 conference record. It is the Anteaters' highest tournament seed since 2015 when they were No. 1. The 'Eaters will face either No. 3 UC Santa Barbara or No. 6 UC Riverside in Saturday's semifinal. The championship match is then slated for Sunday at noon. Cal Poly (6-0), which handed UCI its only loss in league play, is the Big West regular-season champion and top seed, while No. 4 Hawai'i and No. 5 UC Davis round out the field. UC Irvine has won three conference tournament titles (2011, 2010, 2005).
 
STORYLINES
• UC Irvine closed out the regular season on a five-match win streak and secured their fourth-straight winning campaign.
• UCI was unbeaten at Anteater Tennis Stadium with a perfect 6-0 record.
• Dating back to last year, the 'Eaters have posted eight consecutive home victories.
• Bjorn Hoffmann was featured among the Oracle ITA Singles Top-125 for three-straight weeks, with a high ranking of No. 60.
• Hoffmann, who has played every match at the top of the lineup, is 9-5 overall and 2-2 against ranked opponents.
• He has been named the Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week three times this season.
• Mike Mkrtchian owns the squad's longest active singles win streak at seven matches. He has not lost since March 12.
• Mkrtchian, who has played at Nos. 4-6, is now 9-3 on the season with his nine victories tied for the team lead.
• Since making his season debut on March 12, Mateusz Smolicki is 6-1 in singles and 6-3 in doubles.
• Ali Amiri has two match-clinching singles wins this season, including the final point in a 4-3 season-opening victory at LMU.
• Bruce Man-Son-Hing owns a 51-27 (.654) career record in dual-match doubles.
• Man-Son-Hing is the 16th 'Eater in program history to surpass the 50-win milestone.
• In their Division I history, the Anteaters 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 swept UC Davis, 7-0, in its regular-season finale last Saturday at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The 'Eaters got out to a strong start, winning the doubles point for the ninth time this year. Bjorn Hoffmann and Bruce Man-Son-Hing cruised to a 6-3 win at No. 2, before Jeremy Merville and Matthew Sah clinched the point with a 6-4 victory at No. 3. UCI kept the momentum in singles play, coming out on top on all six courts. Mark Peneff, Mike Mkrtchian, Merville and Hoffmann dispatched their opponents in straight sets, while Mateusz Smolicki and Sah both bounced back from a first-set loss to win in three.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (6-5, 4-2 Big West) played its final four matches of the regular season with five players due to COVID-19 protocols. On April 11, the 'Eaters defeated the short-handed Gauchos, 5-2, ending UCSB's 35-match win streak against Big West opponents. UCI and UCSB have met in the semifinals in nine of the last 11 conference tournaments.

IN THE RANKINGS
Bjorn Hoffmann has made an appearance in three of the five regular-season Oracle ITA Men's Tennis Singles Rankings. He was ranked as high as 60th this year. Hoffmann is 9-5 at the top of the lineup, with marquee wins over then No. 60 August Holmgren of San Diego and No. 77 Alex Stater of Cal Poly. Hoffmann is in his first season at UCI as a grad transfer from Cal, where he was also ranked 81st in singles and 22nd in doubles in 2019-20. He is the first Anteater to be featured in the Oracle ITA Singles Top-125 in four years.
 
BIG WEST TRIFECTA
Hoffmann has also been named the Big West Athlete of the Week three times this season, earning the recognition on Feb. 10, Feb. 17 and March 31. He is the first Big West player to collect three men's tennis weekly awards in one season since 2018, and the first 'Eater to accomplish the feat since Sebastian Heim in 2015.
 
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 51-27 dual-match doubles record. His 51 wins rank 16th in school history.
 
STREAK STAYS ALIVE
Junior Mike Mkrtchian owns the Anteaters' longest active singles win streak at seven matches. Six of his nine total victories have come at the fifth and sixth positions, but he recently moved up to No. 4 where he is 3-0. In his first match at the fourth position, Mkrtchian delivered the clinching point in a 5-2 win over UC Santa Barbara. The Reseda, Calif., native is 6-0 against Big West opponents.
 
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. Smolicki made his 2021 season debut in doubles at Pepperdine on March 12. Since his return to the court, Smolicki is 6-1 in singles and 6-3 in doubles.
 
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. This year, he is 6-6 in singles and 6-3 in doubles.
 
SAH POWER
Sophomore Matthew Sah, who has played at Nos. 3-5 in the lineup, is tied for third on the team with six singles wins. 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.
 
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 Hoffmann and Biljana Longman, 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 finished his Golden Bear career with a 67-34 singles and 39-28 doubles record.