LOS ANGELES - UC Irvine men's tennis pushed UCLA to a third set in three singles matches, but ultimately fell to the Bruins, 6-1, Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles Tennis Center.
 
Graduate student Enrique Luque Rico got the Anteaters on the board with an impressive win on court two. Luque Rico started and finished strong for the 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Giacomo Revelli.
 
Senior Ali Amiri and sophomore Rithvik Krishna also went down to the wire in their respective matches. At No. 3, Krishna bounced back from a 7-5 loss in the first set to take the second 7-6 (8-6) against Aadarsh Tripathi. With the team result already decided, the two played a super tiebreaker with Tripathi pulling out the 10-6 win. Amiri saw a similar fate as he dropped a narrow 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (11-9) decision to Azuma Visaya at the fourth position.
 
The Bruins (5-1) claimed the doubles point before clinching the match with singles victories at Nos. 5, 6 and 1.
 
The 'Eaters dropped to 0-3 on the season with two of their losses coming to Pac-12 teams that were either ranked or receiving votes in the ITA Poll.
 
UC Irvine will stay on the road next weekend, traveling to Stockton, California, to face host Pacific (Feb. 18), along with Nevada (Feb. 19) in a neutral-site contest.