UC San Diego (7-16, 0-4 Big West) at
UC Irvine (11-7, 4-1 Big West)
Date: Sunday, April 23
Time: 3 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine will host UC San Diego in its regular-season finale this Sunday, April 23, with first serve set for 3 p.m. at Anteater Tennis Stadium. UCI will honor Matthew Sah and Thomas Smart on Senior Day.
 
Sah has been with the program for four years and is the team's active leader with 29 doubles victories. Smart, who missed most of the 2022 campaign with an injury, has had a breakout season with a team-leading 12 dual-match singles wins.
 
STORYLINES
• The 'Eaters can clinch a share of the Big West regular-season championship with a win on Sunday.
• It would be the program's first regular-season title since 2015.
• UCI is the defending Big West tournament champion after defeating UCD, Cal Poly and UCSB to hoist the trophy in 2022.
• UC Irvine followed a tough 1-6 start to the 2023 dual match season with 10-straight wins.
• The Anteaters saw that streak come to an end this past Sunday with a 4-1 loss to 38th-ranked UC Santa Barbara.
• Their 4-0 victory against UC Davis on April 14 was eighth-year head coach Mike Saunders' 100th career dual-match win.
• Since March 5, the 'Eaters have been dominant in singles where they are 51-7 (.879).
• Not including the canceled 2020 season, UCI has reached 10+ wins every year since 2017-18.
• Five of their seven losses this season were to teams ranked in the latest ITA Top 75.
• Enrique Luque Rico earned his first ranked win of the season at Cal Poly, defeating No. 83 Noah Berry in straight sets.
• Thomas Smart, who has seen action at Nos. 4-6, is tops on the squad with 12 singles victories.
• Rithvik Krishna and Noah Zamora are tied for the team's longest active win streak at nine matches.
• Krishna earned his 11th dual-match win of the year last Friday, while Zamora is 9-1 at Nos. 2-3.
• Ali Amiri is also riding a season-long eight-match win streak.
• 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 (2022, 2010-11, 2005).
• UC Irvine has been named an ITA All-Academic Team (minimum 3.2 team GPA) in each of the last six years.
 
AROUND THE BIG WEST
UC Irvine (4-1) can clinch a share of its first Big West regular-season title in seven years with a win over the Tritons. UC Davis concluded conference play last weekend with a 5-1 record. In the event of a two-way tie with the Aggies, UCI would claim the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big West Championships based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. If UC Santa Barbara (4-1) also wins its Sunday match against Cal Poly, there would be a three-way tie at the top of the standings. An Anteater loss would drop them to the No. 3 seed.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine saw its 10-match win streak come to an end this past Sunday (April 16) at Anteater Tennis Stadium, falling 4-1 to 38th-ranked UC Santa Barbara. It was UCI's first Big West loss and its first defeat since March 3. UCSB took the doubles point with a pair of 6-4 victories at Nos. 2 and 3. At the top of the lineup, Brandon Park and Noah Zamora were tied with 68th-ranked Kai Brady/Philip Jordan, 5-5, when the Gauchos clinched the point. Ali Amiri pulled the 'Eaters even in singles with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Brady on court five, but UC Santa Barbara proceeded to win the next three for the 4-1 win.
 
SCOUTING THE TRITONS
UC San Diego (7-16, 0-4 Big West), which is still looking for its first conference win, will host Cal Poly on Friday, April 21, before making its way to Irvine. Daniel Traxler was named the Big West Player of the Week on April 19 after winning his No. 1 singles matches against UC Riverside and San Diego State. Charles Qian, who has played at Nos. 4-6, owns a team-best 10-7 dual-match singles record. Traxler and Pelayo Rodriguez have also paired up to lead the Tritons with four doubles victories.

SINGLES STREAKS
UC Irvine has three players with an active win streak of eight or more, led by sophomores Noah Zamora and Rithvik Krishna at nine each. Zamora is unbeaten in his last 12 outings where he is 9-0 with three matches that went unfinished. Krishna has only dropped three sets in his run at No. 4 that started on March 5. Ali Amiri also won his eighth in a row after dispatching UCSB's Kai Brady, 6-4, 6-1, last Sunday. Amiri, Krishna and Zamora are all 4-0 in Big West play.
 
FROM THE TOP
Graduate transfer Enrique Luque Rico (9-5) is 7-2 since moving to the top of the singles lineup on March 2. He earned his first ranked win of the season at Cal Poly where he took down No. 83 Noah Berry 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the team victory. It was his third ranked opponent of the dual-match season as he fell in three sets to No. 68 Andre Ilagan of Hawai'i on April 1 to snap a seven-match win streak, while he was up a set on No. 124 Tim Zeitvogel of Pepperdine when their match was abandoned. Earlier in the season, Luque Rico also had a Pac-12 win, upending UCLA's Giacomo Revelli 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at No. 2 on Feb. 11.
 
WIN NO. 20
Sophomore Noah Zamora earned his 20th career dual-match singles win at Hawai'i on April 1. In one-plus seasons at UCI, Zamora, who was tabbed the 2022 Big West Freshman of the Year, has compiled a 22-8 record. The San Diego native has settled in nicely at the second and third positions this season where he is 9-1. In the fall, Zamora 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.
 
THE COMEBACK
Thomas Smart (12-4), who missed most of last year with an injury, was the first 'Eater to reach double digits in the dual-match singles win column in 2023 with his 10th victory coming at Hawai'i. He has played at Nos. 4-6 and is 8-2 in his last 10 outings. Four of his five losses were against teams that 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 proceeded to win 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 (10-4) were handed their first loss of the season against Utah State on March 11.
 
ADDING DEPTH
Sophomore Rithvik Krishna was a key contributor during the Anteaters' 2022 Big West championship run. He was in the singles lineup at No. 6 for each of the team's last five matches and went 5-1 on the season with two of his victories coming in the conference tournament. Krishna has continued to build on a strong start to his collegiate career with an 11-4 mark while playing primarily at No. 4 this year.

FOURTH-YEAR 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 43-23 dual-match record. Sah is the Anteaters' active leader in doubles wins at 29.
 
UP NEXT
The Anteaters will look to defend their title at the Big West Championships, April 28-30, at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.