Results

SAN DIEGO - The third-seeded UC Irvine men's tennis team took down No. 6 seed UC Davis, 4-2, in the first round of the Big West Championships Friday at Barnes Tennis Center.
 
The Anteaters (15-6) erased a 2-0 deficit and clinched the victory with a remarkable comeback by Mike Mkrtchian at No. 4 singles as he won two deuce points to save match point before emerging with the three-set win.  
 
UCI is now headed to its seventh consecutive Big West semifinal where it will face second-seeded and 60th-ranked Cal Poly.
 
"I'm really proud of how we competed; it was a total team win," said head coach Mike Saunders. "UC Davis had us on the ropes but our guys just stayed courageous and resilient."
 
UC Davis (15-14) took a 1-0 lead with wins at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles. Lawee Sherif and Ali Amiri gave the 'Eaters the early advantage with a 6-2 victory over Brett Brinkman/Andras Necz at the third position, but the Aggies came back to even it up with Ryan Torres/Ryan Morgan upending Riccardo Roberto and Matthew Sah, 6-4. Andrei Volgin/Mitchell Davis then outlasted Emmanuel Coste and Noah Zamora, 7-5, at the top of the lineup.
 
UCD would pull ahead 2-0 before Rithvik Krishna got UC Irvine on the board at No. 6 singles. For the second-straight match, Krishna bounced back from a one-set deficit as he ran away with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 win against Mitchell Davis.
 
Roberto then tied the match at 2-2 after dispatching Torres in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, on court two.
 
The three remaining matches all went the distance. Zamora was nearly flawless after a first-set loss as he gave the Anteaters their first lead of the day with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 triumph vs. Morgan at No. 3. It was Zamora's team-leading 11th dual-match singles win.
 
Mkrtchian then delivered his second consecutive match-clinching point. After dropping the first set, he found himself down, 5-2, in the second, but never gave up. He won a deuce point to save match point at 5-2 and 5-3 before coming all the way back to win a tiebreaker. It was all Mkrtchian from there as he topped Necz, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.
 
"It was a complete team win," Mkrtchian said after the match. "I was actually down by a lot in the second set and our volunteer coach (Eric Quade) came up to me and said it's all heart right now. That just brought me up, and my teammates came through cheering for me really loudly. They helped lift me up in that second set."
 
UC Irvine will be back in action on Saturday, April 30, when it squares off against second-seeded Cal Poly at 9 a.m. at Barnes Tennis Center.
 
NOTES
• Mike Mkrtchian and Riccardo Roberto both picked up their 10th dual-match singles win.
• Roberto extended his win streak to a season-long nine matches.
• Mkrtchian also improved to 5-1 against Big West opponents this season.
• Noah Zamora won his third-straight singles contest and leads the team with an 11-2 dual record.
• UCI is now 15-5 against UC Davis since 2003.
• The Anteaters will be making their seventh-straight appearance in the Big West semifinals.
• A win on Saturday would put them in the championship match for the first time since 2015.