UC Irvine (1-2) at
San Diego State (2-1)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 25
Time: 12 p.m. (PST)
Location: Aztec Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine men's tennis is back on the road this weekend as it heads to San Diego State for a 12 p.m. match on Saturday, Jan. 25. 

ANTEATER TIDBITS
• The Anteaters opened the 2025 campaign with three matches in four days.
• They went 1-2 with their first win over Pepperdine since 1992, and their two losses coming to No. 20 UCLA and USC.
• Senior Noah Zamora and sophomore Andy Nguyen upset UCLA's 10th-ranked duo of Hoogmartens/Tripathi, 6-3.
• Zamora is 31st in the ITA Singles Rankings.
• In the fall, Zamora became the first Anteater to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship since 2011.
• He advanced to the Round of 32 after upsetting No. 13 Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in the opening round.
• UCI returns five letterwinners and four all-conference performers from last year's Big West Championship squad.
• Nguyen was the 2024 Big West Freshman of the Year.
• Nguyen, Zamora and Hiroki Sakagawa also garnered all-conference distinction in both singles and doubles.
• In addition, Rithvik Krishna made the All-Big West Second Team in singles.
• Mike Saunders earned his second career Big West Coach of the Year award.

BIG ROAD WIN
UC Irvine was trailing 3-2 when Rithvik Krishna and Hiroki Sakagawa came up clutch for a 4-3 victory over Pepperdine last Saturday at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. The Anteaters ended a 23-match drought in the all-time series with their first win over the Waves since 1992. Pepperdine has made four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and boasts the second-ranked recruiting class according to Tennis Recruiting Network. UCI bounced back from a 2-0 deficit with singles victories from Ruining Huang and Andy Nguyen. The Waves went back on top with a three-set triumph at the top of the lineup, but Krishna kept the 'Eaters alive as he outlasted Lasse Poertner, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, at the fourth spot. Sakagawa then delivered the match-clincher, taking down Aleksa Pisanic, 7-6 (6), 6-4, at No. 3.

SCOUTING THE AZTECS
San Diego State (2-1) won both its matches in a doubleheader against UC San Diego on Jan. 11, before falling at USC on Jan. 20. Senior Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice leads the Aztecs with a 2-1 record while playing at No. 1 and No. 2. Fitzmaurice is one of four returners from a 2023-24 Aztec squad that went 16-7 overall and advanced to the final of the Mountain West Championship. SDSU brings in five newcomers including four international freshmen.

LAST TIME WE MET
UC Irvine and San Diego State squared off at Anteater Tennis Stadium last year (Jan. 27, 2024). UCI dropped the doubles point but bounced back with a dominant performance in singles with four straight-set victories. Lawee Sherif clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Alexander Mandma on court six.

AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
Senior Noah Zamora is ranked 31st in the nation in singles. Zamora had an impressive fall season in which he became the first Anteater to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship since 2011, and the first to advance in the tournament since 1989 as he upset No. 13 Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in the Round of 64. Zamora qualified for the NCAA singles tournament by advancing to the final at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships where he won five-straight matches, including a victory over No. 109 Casper Christensen of Arizona in the quarterfinals. Zamora added another ranked win at the ITA All-American Championships where he defeated No. 64 Miguel Perez Pena of Georgia, 7-5, 6-3. Sophomore Andy Nguyen also had a pair of ranked victories during the fall, taking down No. 52 Iiro Vasa of San Diego, 6-2, 6-4, and No. 125 Nicholas Godsick of Stanford, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

LEAVING A LEGACY
Fourth-year seniors Noah Zamora, Rithvik Krishna and Lawee Sherif will be looking to add to their legacy in 2025. The trio has helped the Anteaters to a pair of Big West Championships (2022, 2024) and a co-Big West regular-season title (2023) in their time at UCI. Since their arrival in 2021-22, the 'Eaters have boasted a 48-24 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 58-28 (39-15 dual), while Krishna is 43-23 (27-12 dual). Sherif, who had a career-high 17 victories last season, rounds out the group with 25 wins (17 dual).

BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora has been even better in Big West play with an 18-1 career record. He is unbeaten in his last 23 outings against conference foes (including postseason) where he is 17-0 with six matches that went unfinished. The only Big West loss of his career came against Cal Poly on April 3, 2022. Zamora is a three-time all-conference selection in both singles and doubles, and he was named the 2022 Big West Freshman of the Year. 

NGUYEN WINS
Andy Nguyen returns after an impressive 2023-24 campaign in which he was named the Big West Freshman of the Year, earned second-team all-conference honors in doubles and was an honorable mention pick in singles. Nguyen went 18-6 overall and 12-4 in dual match singles in his first collegiate season. He was a blue-chip recruit out of Millikan High School where he was the 2022 CIF Southern Section individual champion.

OUR HIRO
Graduate student Hiroki Sakagawa is back for his second season with the Anteaters after transferring from Arizona. Sakagawa was a key member of the 2024 Big West Championship squad as he clinched UCI's wins in both the semifinals and finals. He garnered first-team all-conference honors in singles and second-team recognition in doubles.

ENTERING THE MIX
UC Irvine brings in four newcomers with two transfers and a pair of true freshmen. Mason Bui is a four-star recruit out of Yorba Linda High School. He was a two-time Crestview League singles champion and four-time all-league performer. Ruining Huang is a freshman from Hangzhou, Zhejuang, China. Huang was a U14 national singles champion and won the 2020 Senior High School singles championship. Sohrob Amiryavari is a graduate transfer from UNLV, while Max Fardanesh comes to UCI with three years of eligibility after competing one season at UC Davis. Fardanesh also attended UCLA for one year but was not a member of the tennis program. He was a five-star recruit and ranked as high as No. 8 nationally for the 2021 class on TennisRecruiting.net.

UP NEXT
UC Irvine returns to Anteater Tennis Stadium on Friday, Feb. 7, when it hosts Pacific at 1 p.m.