IRVINE, Calif.— No. 8 seeded UC Irvine is set to open the 2024 Big West Tennis Championships on Wednesday April 24th against No. 9 seed UC Riverside.
 
This marks the third consecutive season where the two squads have faced each other in the opening round of the championship.

Notes

• UC Irvine enters the Big West Championship with an overall record of 5-15 and went 1-8 during the Big West slate
• UCI dropped 7-0 to Long Beach State and then 6-1 to Cal State Fullerton over the weekend
• At Long Beach State…
  • The Beach won the doubles point on courts one (6-1) and court two (6-2) while the match at No. 3 was left unfinished as LBSU was up, 5-2.
  • Jenna Schlatter, Asha Gidwani, Carolyna Fowler, and Amanda Perez all brought their first sets of their respective singles matches within three scores (6-3).
  • At No. 1 singles, Schlatter was able to stay within three again in her second set of her match.
  • Haily Huynh at the No. 6 spot fought hard against her opposition, but dropped both her sets 6-4.
• At Cal State Fullerton…
  • The Titans took the doubles point with a 6-3 win at No. 2 and 6-2 score at the No. 1 spot.
  • CSUF won three straight singles competitions to win the match. The last three matches to be completed were the ones that went to extra points.
  • Asha Gidwani was the first to close out her three-setter on court two. The sophomore took the 6-2 victory in the first. Likewise, Amanda Perez at No. 3 dropped the first point, but came back and topped her opposition 7-5 to force a deciding set.
  • Haily Huynh truly gutted out her victory at the No. 6 spot for the Anteaters lone point of the contest. The first set went to extra points, close the entire time, and even went beyond the constraints of a normal extra points set. Despite dropping 7-6 (10-8), Huynh used that to fuel herself to a 6-1 second set win and then the deciding 10-3 victory in set three.
• The Anteaters hold a 26-2 advantage over UC Riverside in the all-time series

Scouting UC Riverside
UC Riverside enters the Big West Championship with their 4-19 overall record, 0-9 in the league. The Highlanders made the trip up to the central coast this past weekend where they faced Cal Poly (L, 7-0) and UC Santa Barbara (L, 4-0).

Freshman Crystal Kim picked tops UCR with seven individual wins. Kim holds perfect records at the No. 2 (1-0) and No. 4 spots (2-0) while holding a 4-9 record at the No. 3 position.
 
Kim teams up with Maya Youssef for doubles action where they are 5-7 overall in dual match play, 3-2 against Big West opponents.