Hawai'i (5-13, 0-4 Big West) at
UC Irvine (14-6, 4-1 Big West)
Date: Saturday, April 20
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis closes out the regular season on Saturday, April 20, when it hosts Hawai'i in a 12 p.m. Big West showdown at Anteater Tennis Stadium.
 
BIG WEST STANDINGS
The 'Eaters are currently second in the conference standings, sitting a game behind first-place UC Santa Barbara (5-0), which travels to third-place Cal Poly (3-1) for its regular-season finale on Saturday. The Mustangs will then wrap up Big West play against UC San Diego on Monday, April 22. UCI can still claim a share of the regular-season conference title with a win over UH and a UCSB loss to Cal Poly.
 
QUICK HITS
• The Anteaters are 4-1 in Big West play with three of their wins coming by way of a 4-0 sweep.
• In his UC Irvine career, junior Noah Zamora owns a 16-1 singles record against conference opponents.
• This season he is 4-0 in Big West matches and owns a team-best 21 overall singles wins (13 dual).
• Andy Nguyen and Lawee Sherif have both reached double digits in dual-match victories with 10 apiece.
• As a team, the Anteaters have been impressive in singles where they are 74-31 (.705).
• Rahul Dhokia/Noah Zamora upset No. 38 Pablo Masjuan/Gianluca Brunkow (UCSB), 7-6 (9-7) on April 14.
• UC Irvine won the Big West tournament in 2022 and secured a share of the Big West regular-season title in 2023.
• The 'Eaters have seven returning letterwinners including all four of their All-Big West selections from a year ago.
• 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 seven years.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Irvine blanked UC San Diego, 4-0, Tuesday at the Northview Tennis Courts in La Jolla. The Anteaters won the doubles point for the third-straight match. Hiroki Sakagawa and Andy Nguyen earned their team-leading ninth doubles victory, taking down Daniel Traxler/William Lan, 6-0, at No. 2. Matthew Sah and Lawee Sherif, who were making their season debut as a duo, then closed out a 6-2 win over Diogo Tinoco/Phillip Lan on court three to put the 'Eaters up, 1-0. Sherif kept the momentum in singles where he dispatched Traxler, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 6. Sakagawa also made quick work of Lan, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 2, before Noah Zamora clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Tinoco at the third position.
 
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 only 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.
 
SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
Hawai'i (5-13, 0-4 Big West) is still searching for its first Big West win after falling at UC San Diego, 4-0, on Wednesday, April 17. Quinn Snyder leads the Rainbow Warriors with a 7-4 record at the top of the singles lineup. He is a two-time Big West Player of the Week and most recently won the award after defeating No. 46 Pablo Masjuan of UC Santa Barbara in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Snyder and Andy Hernandez also have a team-best three doubles wins at No. 1.

BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora owns a 16-1 career record against Big West opponents. He is unbeaten in his last 20 outings against conference foes (including postseason) where he is 15-0 with five matches that went unfinished. The only Big West loss of his three-year career came against Cal Poly on April 3, 2022. 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 time at UCI, the San Diego native is 37-12 (.755) in dual-match singles.
 
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 8-5 at No. 1 with three of his losses coming against ranked opponents. He recently had a clutch three-set win over Noah Berry to clinch UC Irvine's 4-3 victory over Cal Poly on April 6. Last year, Luque Rico went 10-6 to earn first-team All-Big West honors. Over his collegiate career, he owns a 46-23 dual-match singles record.
 
TWENTY AND COUNTING
In just his 26th decision in his collegiate dual-match career, junior Rithvik Krishna recorded his 20th win. This year, he has gone 9-5 while playing at Nos. 2-5. Krishna, who is in his third season at UCI, owns a .694 win percentage (25-11). Last year, he earned an All-Big West honorable mention nod.
 
ON THE RISE
Junior Lawee Sherif has been on a tear this season as he is tied for second on the squad with 10 singles victories, while boasting a .769 win percentage (10-3). He has more dual-match singles wins in 2024 than he had in his first two campaigns combined.
 
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 59-30 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 42.
 
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 on Feb. 25 and in singles, where he is 7-2, on March 5. Sakagawa spent the last four years at the University of Arizona. In his first season at UC Irvine, Sakagawa is 8-6 in singles and 9-7 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 16-5 overall and 10-3 in dual matches.
 
UP NEXT
The Big West Championships get underway next week with the quarterfinals on Friday, April 26. The winners will advance to the semifinals on Saturday, April 27, to face the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, which receive a first-round bye. The championship match is then slated for Sunday, April 28. The tournament will be contested at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.