UC Irvine (5-6, 0-0 Big West) at
UC Riverside (5-10, 0-0 Big West)
Date: Saturday, March 25
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: SRC Tennis Courts - Riverside, Calif.

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis heads to the Inland Empire for its Big West opener at UC Riverside on Saturday, March 25. First serve is set for 10:30 a.m.
 
STORYLINES
• UC Irvine is riding a four-match win streak into this weekend's Big West opener.
• Since 2000, the Anteaters are 27-0 against UC Riverside.
• The 'Eaters will play seven of their nine matches in the month of March at home.
• Four of UCI's six losses were to teams currently ranked in the ITA Top 75 - USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and Boise State.
• Enrique Luque Rico is riding a five-match singles win streak and has not dropped a set since March 3.
• He has played at No. 1 in the last six outings where he is 4-0.
• Luque Rico was also in a third set when Pepperdine (March 2) and Boise State (March 3) clinched the team win.
• Thomas Smart has won four in a row and owns a team-best 7-3 singles record in dual-match play.
• Noah Zamora, Ali Amiri and Rithvik Krishna all have three-match singles win streaks heading into Saturday's action.
• Brandon Park and Zamora, who made their doubles debut on Feb. 18, are 6-2 at the top of the lineup.
• Zamora and Amiri traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the ITA All-American Championships in the fall.
• In their Division I history, the Anteaters have made 12 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• They have placed first in the Big West standings 17 times and won four Big West tournament titles.
• UC Irvine has been named an ITA All-Academic Team (minimum 3.2 team GPA) in each of the last six years.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine closed out a five-match homestand with its fourth-straight win, defeating the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 6-1, last Thursday at Anteater Tennis Stadium. UTRGV held the early momentum, taking the first doubles match on court one, 6-0. The 'Eaters responded at No. 3 where Rithvik Krishna and Thomas Smart topped Chris Lawrance/Te Kani Williams, 6-1. The doubles point then came down to the second position where Matthew Sah and Lawee Sherif had raced out to a 4-1 lead, but they were unable to hold off the surging Vaquero duo of Karlo Krolo/Sam Whitehead, who won five consecutive games for the 6-4 victory. UCI bounced back with a dominant performance in singles where it did not drop a set. Krishna quickly pulled the Anteaters even with an impressive 6-0, 6-1 win over Williams at No. 4. Enrique Luque Rico also dispatched Emilien Burnel, 6-1, 6-1, at the top of the lineup. Smart then earned a 6-3, 6-1 decision over Whitehead at the fifth spot before Noah Zamora delivered the match-clinching 6-2, 6-2 win vs. Borna Devald at No. 2. The remaining courts played out their respective matches with Ali Amiri and Brandon Park completing the singles sweep. Amiri upended Agustin Salazar, 6-4, 6-2, while Park battled back from a 5-2 first-set deficit to defeat Krolo, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 3.
 
SCOUTING THE HIGHLANDERS
UC Riverside (5-10, 0-0 Big West) was last in action on March 8, when it fell to Utah State, 6-1. Justin Lamy leads the Highlanders with a 6-2 singles record at Nos. 3-5. Antreas Djakouris, a 2022 second-team All-Big West selection, has played most of the season at the top of the lineup, while he has also paired up with Joshua Roth for a team-best four doubles victories at No. 1.
 
SINGLES STREAK
Graduate transfer Enrique Luque Rico (6-3) is riding a five-match singles win streak. He has not dropped a set since March 3. Luque Rico played the last six at the top of the lineup and is 4-0 with two of his matches going unfinished. He made his debut at No. 1 on March 2 at his former school, Pepperdine, and was leading No. 124 Tim Zeitvogel, 6-4, 3-3, when the Waves clinched. Luque Rico also had a Pac-12 win on Feb. 11, upending UCLA's Giacomo Revelli, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, at No. 2.

THE COMEBACK
Junior Thomas Smart, who missed most of last season with an injury, owns a team-best 7-3 record in dual-match singles. He has won four in a row, while his only losses this year came at USC, at UCLA and vs. Boise State, all of which are currently ranked in the ITA Top-75.
 
INSTANT CHEMISTRY
Junior Brandon Park and sophomore Noah Zamora found instant chemistry on the court. The duo made their debut as a tandem on Feb. 18 and won six-straight at the top of the lineup. They clinched the doubles point against Nevada and Army, while also earning an impressive 6-4 victory at Pepperdine. Park/Zamora (6-2) were handed their first loss of the season against Utah State on Saturday, March 11.
 
NEW YEAR, NEW ROLE
After playing most of last season at Nos. 3-5, Noah Zamora was bumped up to the top two spots for eight of his nine appearances in 2023. Zamora earned his first victory of the dual-match season in straight sets at No. 2 against Army's Thomas Lake, and has since made it three in a row with victories against Jonah Dickson of Boston U at No. 3 and Borna Devald of UTRGV at No. 2. Zamora was named the 2022 Big West co-Freshman of the Year after going 13-2. In the fall, he led the 'Eaters with seven victories, advanced to the pre-qualifying Round of 64 at the ITA All-American Championships and made it to the Round of 32 at the ITA Southwest Regional.
 
SENIOR LEADERS
Seniors and veteran leaders Matthew Sah and Ali Amiri have both been with the UC Irvine men's tennis program since fall 2019. The two have come a long way from seeing their freshman dual-match season canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to becoming Big West champions last year. During their collegiate careers, the 'Eaters own a 37-22 dual-match record. Sah is the Anteaters' active leader in doubles wins at 27.
 
RETURNING DEPTH
UCI received significant contributions from a pair of true freshmen in its 2022 championship season. Lawee Sherif, who joined the team last January, has been a staple in the lineup, playing 21 career matches at Nos. 3-6. Rithvik Krishna has also seen action at Nos. 3-6 where he owns a 10-5 career record. Last season, he went 5-1 in dual matches and won his last three decisions, including a 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory in the Big West Championship match.
 
STAYING LOCAL
UC Irvine's eight-man roster is comprised of six student-athletes from the Southern California area, including Ali Amiri and Rithvik Krishna, who are both from Irvine.
 
INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
Two international student-athletes - Enrique Luque Rico (Spain) and Thomas Smart (England) - round out UCI's roster. The 'Eaters have had at least two international student-athletes every year since 2014-15.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine will host Westcliff (March 28) and Saint Mary's (March 29) in its final regular-season non-conference matches before continuing Big West action at Hawai'i on Saturday, April 1.