UC Irvine (3-1) at
San Francisco (0-0)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 10
Time: 1 p.m. (PST)
Location: Goldman Tennis Center - San Francisco, Calif.

UC Irvine (3-1) at
Santa Clara (2-1)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 11
Time: 12 p.m. (PST)
Location: Degheri Tennis Center - Santa Clara, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis heads to Northern California for two matches this week. The Anteaters will travel to San Francisco for a 1 p.m. showdown with the Dons on Saturday, Feb. 10, before making their way to Santa Clara for a 12 p.m. tilt on Sunday, Feb. 11.
 
STORYLINES
• This weekend, UC Irvine begins a stretch where it will face five-straight opponents from the West Coast Conference.
• The first four matches during that WCC swing will be on the road.
• UCI begins the month of February with a 3-1 record after back-to-back wins over BYU (Jan. 26) and SDSU (Jan. 27).
• The 'Eaters 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.
• All four of their 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 remained unbeaten at home with a 4-1 win over San Diego State at Anteater Tennis Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 27. In doubles, SDSU held the early advantage after a 6-4 triumph on court one, but Andy Nguyen and Hiroki Sakagawa answered at No. 2 where they defeated Chikaya Sato/Johannes Seeman, 6-4. The Aztecs then edged UCI, 7-5, at the third position to secure the doubles point. The 'Eaters turned the tables with a dominant performance in singles. Enrique Luque Rico set the tone with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Seeman at the top of the lineup. Rithvik Krishna dispatched Eugenio Gonzalez, 6-4, 6-0 at No. 4 and Sakagawa followed with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 2. Lawee Sherif then took down Alexander Mandma, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 6 to clinch the match.
 
SCOUTING THE DONS
San Francisco (0-0) begins its dual-match schedule this week, hosting Sacramento State (Feb. 9) and UC Irvine (Feb. 10). The Dons have three returning letterwinners including senior Moritz Hoffmann, who earned All-WCC Honorable Mention recognition last year. In January, USF competed in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic with Davide Corimiglia and Giovanni Branchetti taking home the doubles title.
 
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS
Santa Clara (2-1) was handed its first loss of the young season with a 4-3 setback to UC Santa Barbara last Saturday, Feb. 3. The Broncos welcome back two of their three All-WCC selections from a year ago in Christian Lerby and Guillaume Dalmasso. Lerby, who is 2-1 at the top of the lineup, came in at No. 42 in the ITA Singles Rankings released on Feb. 7. Lerby has also teamed up with Dalmasso to go 3-0 at No. 1 doubles.
 
FALL RECAP
UC Irvine finished the fall tournament season with a combined 50-28 (.641) singles record. Rithvik Krishna and Noah Zamora tied for the team lead with eight wins each, while Hiroki Sakagawa and Lawee Sherif were right behind them with identical 7-3 marks. Andy Nguyen was also an impressive 6-2 in his collegiate debut. In addition, Ali Amiri had UCI's first ranked win of the season, taking down No. 53 Noah Berry of Cal Poly, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, at the ITA Southwest Regional.

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 26-9 dual-match singles record.
 
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 3-1 with his only loss coming to All-American Stefan Dostanic of 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 36-19 dual-match singles record.
 
PROVEN WINNER
Junior Rithvik Krishna is 2-0 in dual-match singles after making his 2024 season debut against BYU on Jan. 26. Overall, he is tied for the team lead with 12 victories. In his collegiate career, Krishna has played from No. 3 to No. 6 and owns an impressive .750 win percentage (18-6). Last year, he earned an All-Big West honorable mention nod.
 
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 48-25 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 UCI's 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 UCI 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 8-3 overall (2-1 dual) in singles and 5-4 (2-0 dual) in doubles.

UP NEXT
UC Irvine makes its way to Moraga, California, to face Saint Mary's at 1 p.m. next Saturday, Feb. 17.