IRVINE, Calif. – The Anteaters faced tough singles competition from the Aggies as they fell 1-6 to UC Davis at Anteater Tennis Stadium.

UC Irvine drops to 0-1 in conference play, 3-2 overall.

All three UC Irvine doubles pairs battled in their respective matches but came up short as UC Davis swept to collect two points.

At No. 3 singles, Asha Gidwani forced a third set to win the lone Anteater point. Gidwani won the first set, 6-3, fought hard in a losing 5-7 battle, before she ran away with the 10-3 tiebreaker victory.

In the sixth singles position, Haily Huynh earned the 6-4 win in the second set in a comeback from behind effort. Huynh eventually fell 10-12 in a back-and-forth extra set.

In the exhibition rounds, Nour Khayat and Cydney Yamamoto teamed up in a 1-6 loss. Carolyna Fowler and Khayat won 6-4 and 6-3 respectively in the extra singles contests.

"Tough loss today. Had quite a few opportunities," said head coach Elizabeth Ferris Smith. "It just shows that we have to maintain our high level of play more consistently throughout the match. We have to allow how we practice to shine through a little bit more on match day- especially against such a deep team like Davis. I was happy to see how hard we fought back on all the courts. Amanda and Haily really put themselves in a great position to win their matches and Asha played a flawless tie breaker to snag her match. She played with a lot of belief and courage. It could have been easy for her to go away after she lost that second set. It was great to see her step up. A lot of credit to Davis today."

SINGLES DRAWS
Yana Gurevich (UCD) defeated Jenna Schlatter (UCI) 6-1, 6-3
Arianna Stavropolous (UCD) defeated Alyssia Fossorier (UCI) 6-0, 6-2
Asha Gidwani (UCI) defeated Olive Maunupau (UCD) 6-3, 5-7, 10-3
Michelle Zell (UCD) defeated Amanda Perez (UCI) 6-4, 7-5
Kaia Wolfe (UCD) defeated Larissa Teramura (UCI) 6-1, 6-3
Carly Schwartzberg (UCD) defeated Haily Huynh (UCI) 6-2, 4-6, 12-10

DOUBLES
Gurevich/Stavropoulos (UCD) defeated C.Fowler/E.Fowler (UCI), 6-3
Ko/Maunupau (UCD) defeated Schlatter/Fossorier (UCI), 7-5
Schwartzberg/Zell (UCD) defeated Gidwani/Perez (UCI), 6-4

WHAT THE PLAYERS HAD TO SAY:
"I am very proud of how hard our team fought today, unfortunately it wasn't our day. But we all kept our energy up and it was still a fun match! My team cheering me on really motivated me and helped me win today." -Asha Gidwani
 
UP NEXT
The Anteaters will head to cross-county opponent Hope International on Saturday Feb. 25 for a 12 p.m. contest.