UC Irvine (10-5, 0-0 Big West) at
UC Davis (10-5, 2-0 Big West)
Date: Wednesday, April 3
Time: 2 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Marya Welch Tennis Center - Davis, Calif.

Cal Poly (6-6, 1-0 Big West) at
UC Irvine (10-5, 0-0 Big West)
Date: Saturday, April 6
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

UC Riverside (3-13, 0-1 Big West) at
UC Irvine (10-5, 0-0 Big West)
Date: Monday, April 8
Time: 1 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis will play three Big West matches in six days starting with their conference opener at UC Davis on Wednesday, April 3. First serve is set for 2 p.m. at Marya Welch Tennis Center. The Anteaters then return home to host Cal Poly at 12 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, and UC Riverside at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 8.
 
QUICK HITS
• The 'Eaters and Aggies are tied for the best overall record in the conference at 10-5.
• UCI played six of its eight matches in March in the friendly confines of Anteater Tennis Stadium.
• UC Irvine is 9-1 at home with its only loss coming to Columbia, which was ranked seventh in the nation at the time.
• The Anteaters claimed two of the last three Big West Player of the Week awards.
• Noah Zamora and Lawee Sherif are tied for the team lead with nine dual-match singles victories each.
• Sherif has won eight of his last nine while playing at Nos. 3-6.
• UCI won the Big West tournament in 2022 and secured a share of the Big West regular-season title in 2023.
• The Anteaters have seven returning letterwinners including all four of their All-Big West selections from a year ago.
• 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.
 
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Freshman Andy Nguyen received the Anteaters' second Big West Player of the Week honor on March 27. Nguyen was recognized after helping UC Irvine to a 4-3 victory over Gonzaga. He gave the Anteaters their first lead of the match as his 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Pablo Gomez Galvan at No. 4 singles put UCI up 2-1. Nguyen is the first freshman in the conference to claim the weekly award this season. On March 13, junior Noah Zamora secured UC Irvine's first Big West Player of the Week nod after going 2-0 in singles against No. 31 UCLA and Weber State. He earned the Anteaters' lone point in a 4-1 loss to the Bruins with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 victory over Spencer Johnson on court three.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine defeated Army, 7-0, in its non-conference finale last Tuesday at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The 'Eaters got out to a strong start in doubles as Andy Nguyen and Hiroki Sakagawa set the tone with a 6-1 victory at No. 3. After splitting their first two games, Rahul Dhokia and Noah Zamora went on a roll, winning five of the next six for the 6-2 triumph on court one. In singles, Nguyen was bumped up to the second spot in the lineup, his highest of the season, and made quick work of Jack Huarte, 6-3, 6-0. Ali Amiri cruised, 6-2, 6-1, over Marcus Sebastian at No. 5, before Dhokia clinched the team victory by taking down Samuel Haikal, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4. Lawee Sherif (No. 3) and Noah Zamora (No. 1) added straight-set wins, while Sah outlasted Alan Ton, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (12), 10-8 at No. 6 in his dual-match singles season debut.
 
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
UC Davis (10-5, 2-0 Big West) has already played two Big West matches, defeating UC Riverside, 7-0, on March 27, and Hawai'i, 4-0, back on March 1. The Aggies bring a seven-match win streak into Wednesday's meeting. Constantinos Djakouris, the 2023 Big West Freshman of the Year, is 7-3, playing most of the season at No. 1 singles. Antreas Djakouris is tops on the squad with a 9-2 record. Ivan Savkin and Ryan Torres are also unbeaten in doubles at 8-0.
 
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
Cal Poly (6-6, 1-0 Big West) is coming off a 5-2 conference victory at Hawai'i last Saturday, March 30. The Mustangs will take on UC Riverside before making their way to Irvine on Saturday. Noah Berry is CP's No. 1 singles player, while Sean Kamyshev has a team-best seven dual-match wins at Nos. 4-6. Colter Smith and Bastiaan Weststrate have led the way in doubles where they are 8-2 at No. 1.

SCOUTING THE HIGHLANDERS
UC Riverside (3-13, 0-1 Big West) has lost two in a row, falling at UC Davis on March 27 and at Pacific on March 28. Joshua Roth has played every match at No. 1 singles, while Arav Sane and Lucas Mszyca have a team-best four doubles victories at No. 2.
 
BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora owns a 12-1 career record 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 three seasons at UCI, the San Diego native is 34-12 (.739).
 
ON THE RISE
Junior Lawee Sherif has been on a tear this season as he is tied for the team lead with nine singles victories and is tops on the squad with an .818 win percentage (9-2). He has more dual-match singles wins in 2024 than he had in his first two campaigns combined.
 
FROM THE TOP
Graduate student Enrique Luque Rico transferred to UCI 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 6-4 at No. 1 with two of his losses coming against ranked opponents. Last year, Luque Rico went 10-6 to earn first-team All-Big West honors. Over his collegiate career, he owns a 44-22 dual-match singles record.
 
WIN NO. 20
In just his 26th decision in his collegiate dual-match career, junior Rithvik Krishna recorded his 20th win. This year, he has gone 7-4 while playing at Nos. 2-5. Krishna, who is in his third season at UCI, owns an impressive .697 win percentage (23-10). Last year, he earned an All-Big West honorable mention nod.
 
YEAR FIVE
UCI has a veteran squad led by fifth-year seniors Ali Amiri and Matthew Sah. After seeing their freshman dual-match season canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amiri and Sah helped the Anteaters to a Big West tournament title in 2022 and a share of the regular-season championship in 2023. During their UCI careers, the 'Eaters own a 55-29 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 38.
 
SEASONED NEWCOMERS
UCI bolstered its roster with the addition of three newcomers, including graduate transfers Rahul Dhokia and Hiroki Sakagawa. Dhokia previously played at Texas A&M and Baylor, where he was a member of the Bears' 2021 NCAA Finalist team. He made his Anteater debut in doubles (4-3) on Feb. 25 and in singles (5-1) on March 5. Sakagawa spent the last four years at the University of Arizona. In his first season at UC Irvine, Sakagawa is 7-4 in singles and 8-5 in doubles alongside Andy Nguyen.
 
BLUE CHIP
Freshman Andy 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. At UCI, Nguyen is 13-5 overall and 7-3 in dual matches.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine will have a week to prepare for a Big West road match at UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, April 14.