IRVINE, Calif. – No. 44 UC Irvine men's tennis defeated Navy, 6-1, Thursday afternoon at Anteater Tennis Stadium.
 
The 'Eaters won their fifth-straight match to improve to 9-3 on the season.
 
The Mids (12-11) got the first win of the day with Graydon Buckingham/Zach Quattro upending Ruining Huang and Rithvik Krishna, 6-4, at No. 3 doubles. UCI quickly responded as Sohrob Amiryavari and Lawee Sherif closed out a 6-4 victory over George Cutone/Herrick Legaspi on court two.
 
The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker at the top of the lineup. The Anteaters' 90th-ranked duo of Andy Nguyen and Noah Zamora were in a 6-6 deadlock with Luke Garner/Jake Young, who entered today's match with a 5-0 record at No. 1. It continued to go back-and-forth with Nguyen/Zamora pulling out the 7-6 (7-5) win.
 
Nguyen, the reigning Big West Player of the Week, carried his momentum into singles where he blanked Garner, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 2 to extend his win streak to seven.

Sherif was next off the court, beating Cutone, 6-0, 6-3, at the fourth position to give UC Irvine a 3-0 lead. Amiryavari then clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Buckingham at No. 5.
 
The teams played out the remaining matches. Max Fardanesh earned a 6-3, 6-2 victory on court six, while Zamora took down Legaspi, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 1 for his fifth consecutive win. Young picked up Navy's lone point at No. 3 singles.
 
UC Irvine is scheduled to face Yale on Friday, March 14, at a time to be determined, dependent on weather conditions.