UC Irvine (4-2) at
Loyola Marymount (3-3)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 25
Time: 12 p.m. (PST)
Location: LMU Tennis Center - Los Angeles, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis returns to action this weekend as it travels to Los Angeles to face Loyola Marymount on Sunday, Feb. 25. First serve is set for 12 p.m. at LMU Tennis Center.
 
QUICK HITS
• UC Irvine will play its first match since Feb. 11 after last week's contest at Saint Mary's was canceled due to weather.
• The Anteaters split their last two matches on the road, defeating San Francisco before falling to Santa Clara.
• The Broncos are now ranked 71st in the latest ITA Rankings released on Feb. 20.
• The 'Eaters will be facing their third-straight opponent from the West Coast Conference on Sunday.
• UCI won the Big West tournament in 2022 and claimed a share of the Big West regular-season title in 2023.
• The Anteaters have seven returning letterwinners, and all seven are upperclassmen.
• Each of their four All-Big West selections from a year ago are back for another season.
• Noah Zamora and Enrique Luque Rico earned first-team all-conference honors in singles.
• In addition, Zamora paired up with Brandon Park for a first-team All-Big West nod in doubles.
• Park (Second Team) and Rithvik Krishna (Honorable Mention) also made the all-conference team in singles.
• In their Division I history, the 'Eaters 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 seven years.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine saw its three-match win streak come to an end with a narrow 4-3 loss at Santa Clara on Sunday, Feb. 11. The Anteaters split their weekend road trip after defeating San Francisco, 4-1, less than 24 hours earlier. In doubles, Andy Nguyen and Hiroki Sakagawa found their rhythm early, cruising to a 6-1 victory over Luca Lemaitre/Tiago Boschmans at No. 2. The Broncos then won at Nos. 1 and 3 for the 1-0 lead. Rithvik Krishna remained unbeaten in singles as he was first off the court, taking down Lemaitre, 6-1, 6-4, at the fourth position. Nguyen then gave UCI a 2-1 lead as he dispatched Alexander Erikkson, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 5, but Santa Clara responded with victories at Nos. 6, 1, and 3 to clinch the win. Sakagawa played out his match on court two where he outlasted Guillaume Dalmasso, 3-6, 6-2, 10-7.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS
Loyola Marymount (3-3) lost its last two matches, falling to Boise State and Denver by 4-0 scores. Yassine Smiej has played every match at the top of the lineup where he is 2-3. Smiej also won the singles title at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic back in January. Arthur Pantino leads the Lions with a 4-0 dual-match record at No. 3. Last year, Pantino was a second-team All-WCC selection in singles and received an honorable mention nod in doubles.
 
WE MEET AGAIN
UC Irvine competed in the LMU Invitational during the fall tournament season. The Anteaters won all five singles and two of three doubles matches against the Lions. This will mark the fourth-straight year the two programs will square off at LMU in dual-match play. The 'Eaters came out on top in 2021 (4-3) and 2022 (4-0), while they dropped a 4-3 decision last year.
 
FROM THE TOP
Graduate student Enrique Luque Rico transferred to UC Irvine from Pepperdine prior to the 2022-23 campaign and has been a steady force at the top of the singles lineup for the Anteaters since his arrival. This season, he is 4-2 with his only losses coming to No. 42 Christian Lerby of Santa Clara and former All-American Stefan Dostanic of then seventh-ranked USC. Last year, Luque Rico went 10-6 in dual matches and an impressive 8-3 at No. 1 to earn first-team All-Big West honors. Over his collegiate career at both UCI and Pepperdine, he owns a 37-20 dual-match singles record.

WIN NO. 20
In just his 26th decision in his collegiate dual-match career, junior Rithvik Krishna recorded his 20th career win. This year, Krishna has gone 4-0 since making his 2024 season debut against BYU on Jan. 26. His four wins are tied for the team lead, while he is also tops on the squad with 12 overall victories. Krishna, who is in his third season at UCI, has played from No. 3 to No. 6 and owns an impressive .769 (20-6) win percentage. Last year, he earned an All-Big West honorable mention nod.
 
BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Junior Noah Zamora is 12-1 against Big West opponents. In 2023, he went unbeaten in his last 15 outings where he was 11-0 with four matches that went unfinished. During that stretch, he was 6-0 against Big West foes. Zamora is a two-time all-conference selection in both singles and doubles, and was named the 2022 Big West Freshman of the Year. In his third season at UCI, the San Diego native owns a 27-10 dual-match singles record.
 
YEAR FIVE
UC Irvine has a veteran squad led by fifth-year seniors Ali Amiri and Matthew Sah. Amiri and Sah 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 in each of the last two years. During their UCI careers, the 'Eaters have boasted a 49-26 dual-match record. Amiri is finishing up his undergraduate degree in biological sciences, while Sah is in the Master of Software Engineering program. Sah is the Anteaters' active doubles wins leader at 33.
 
SEASONED NEWCOMERS
UCI bolstered its roster with the addition of three newcomers, including two graduate transfers. Rahul Dhokia comes to Irvine from Texas A&M where he owned a 22-8 overall singles record in two seasons. He spent his first two years at Baylor and was a member of the Bears' 2021 Big 12 Champion and NCAA Finalist team. Hiroki Sakagawa joins the Anteaters after four years at the University of Arizona. In 2022 and 2023, the Wildcats won back-to-back Pac-12 regular-season titles.
 
BLUE CHIP
Freshman Andy Nguyen rounds out UC Irvine's trio of newcomers. Nguyen is a blue-chip recruit from Millikan High School in Long Beach. He was the CIF-Southern Section individual champion in 2022, while he also led the Rams to the CIF Division 4 team title in 2021. Nguyen was ranked eighth in California and 18th in the nation according to Tennis Recruiting. As an Anteater, Nguyen is 9-3 overall and 3-1 in dual matches while playing at Nos. 4 and 5.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine is home for two as it is set to host Portland on March 3 and Villanova on March 5.