California Irvine Athletics

No. 62 Dartmouth (9-4) at
No. 45 UC Irvine (9-3)
Date: Saturday, March 22
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

No. 10 Harvard (12-3) at
No. 45 UC Irvine (9-3)
Date: Sunday, March 23
Time: 1 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - No. 45 UC Irvine men's tennis closes out non-conference action by welcoming two ranked teams to Anteater Tennis Stadium this weekend. The 'Eaters are set to host No. 62 Dartmouth at 12 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, before entertaining No. 10 Harvard in a 1 p.m. showdown on Sunday, March 23.

ANTEATER TIDBITS
• UC Irvine came in at No. 45 in the ITA Division I Men's Top 75 Team Rankings released on March 18.
• The Anteaters have been among the top-50 since Feb. 20, and were ranked as high as No. 36 this season.
• The 'Eaters defeated Navy last Thursday, March 13, for their fifth-straight win, improving to 9-3 on the season.
• UCI's three losses are to Stanford, USC and UCLA, all of which have been ranked in the top-25 this year.
• Andy Nguyen (March 12) and Noah Zamora (March 19) earned back-to-back Big West Player of the Week honors.
• Zamora is 58th in the latest ITA national singles rankings, while Zamora/Nguyen are 82nd in doubles.
• The 'Eaters are closing out a nine-match homestand in which they are 5-0 with two matches that were canceled.

AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
Senior Noah Zamora came in at No. 58 in the latest NCAA Division I men's singles rankings released by the ITA on March 18. Zamora picked up his fourth ranked win of the 2024-25 season after taking down No. 99 Tiago Silva of Pacific, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4, on Feb. 7. He is unbeaten in his last eight outings with five victories and three matches that went unfinished. During the fall, he was the first Anteater to compete in the NCAA Singles Championships 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, who punched his NCAA ticket with a runner-up showing at the ITA Southwest Regional, also defeated No. 64 Miguel Perez (Georgia) and No. 109 Casper Christensen (Arizona) in the fall. As a duo, No. 82 Andy Nguyen/Noah Zamora earned a signature 6-3 win over then No. 10 Alexander Hoogmartens/Aadarsh Tripathi of UCLA in the opener on Jan. 17. 

NGUYEN WINS
Andy Nguyen was named the Big West Player of the Week on March 12. It was the first weekly honor for the Anteaters this season and second career award for Nguyen. He was recognized after going 2-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles in victories over Temple, Villanova and LMU. The 2024 Big West Freshman of the Year leads the squad with an 8-2 record, playing primarily at No. 2. All eight of his victories have come in straight sets. Nguyen is unbeaten in his last eight outings (7-0) with his last loss coming on Jan. 18. During the fall, Nguyen also took down two ranked opponents, upsetting No. 52 Iiro Vasa of San Diego and No. 125 Nicholas Godsick of Stanford.

BACK-TO-BACK
Noah Zamora is the reigning Big West Player of the Week as he earned UCI's second-straight award for his effort in a 6-1 victory over Navy. Zamora teamed up with Nguyen at No. 1 doubles where the then 90th-ranked duo saved match point before closing out the decisive 7-6 (5) win. They are 6-3 on the season and are riding a five-match win streak with their last loss coming on Jan. 25. Zamora then took down Herrick Legaspi, 6-4, 6-4, at the top of the singles lineup for his fifth consecutive victory.

LAST TIME OUT
Then No. 44 UC Irvine defeated Navy, 6-1, last Thursday at Anteater Tennis Stadium. After the Mids took the first doubles match, Sohrob Amiryavari and Lawee Sherif closed out a 6-4 win on court two. The early point came down to a tiebreaker at the top of the lineup where Andy Nguyen and Noah Zamora pulled out the decisive 7-6 (5) victory. Nguyen carried his momentum into singles where he blanked Luke Garner, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 2. Sherif was next off the court, beating George Cutone, 6-0, 6-3, at the fourth position. Amiryavari then clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Graydon Buckingham at No. 5. Zamora (No. 1) and Max Fardanesh (No. 6) added straight-set wins.

SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN
No. 62 Dartmouth (9-4) opened its Southern California road trip with a 4-1 loss at No. 73 LMU on Wednesday. It snapped the Big Green's four-match win streak. Carlos Guerrero Alvarez has played all but one match at the top of the singles lineup where he is 6-3. Henry Ren is also 9-2 at Nos. 2 and 3, while Miles Groom has nine wins while playing at Nos. 3-5. UCI and Dartmouth last met on March 21, 2022, in Irvine with Noah Zamora winning a third-set tiebreaker to clinch the 4-3 victory for the 'Eaters.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON
No. 10 Harvard improved to 12-3 with a 7-0 victory at San Diego State on Tuesday. The Crimson will take their eight-match win streak into a top-10 battle at No. 7 San Diego before making their way to Irvine. Daniel Milavsky, who is ranked 27th in the nation, leads the team with an 11-2 record at the top of the singles lineup. Masato Perera and Benjamin Privara are also ranked 14th in doubles where they are 6-3 at No. 1. UCI and Harvard last met on March 13, 2017, with the Crimson taking the 4-3 win at Anteater Tennis Stadium.

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 helped the Anteaters to a pair of Big West Championships (2022, 2024) and a co-Big West regular-season title (2023) in their first three years at UCI. Since their arrival in 2021-22, the 'Eaters have boasted a 56-25 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 63-28 (44-15 dual), while Krishna is 48-26 (32-15 dual). Sherif, who had a career-high 17 victories last season, rounds out the group with 28 wins (20 dual). Zamora is a three-time All-Big West selection, while Krishna earned all-conference honors as a sophomore and junior.

BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora has been dominant 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. 

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 at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Jan. 18. 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. The Anteaters ended a 23-match drought in the all-time series with their first win over the Waves since 1992. Pepperdine, which came in at No. 21 in the latest ITA rankings, has made four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and boasts the second-ranked recruiting class according to Tennis Recruiting Network. 

ENTERING THE MIX
UC Irvine has four newcomers with two transfers and a pair of true freshmen. Ruining Huang, a freshman from Hangzhou, Zhejuang, China, is tied for third on the team with five dual-match singles victories. Graduate transfer Sohrob Amiryavari (UNLV) and sophomore transfer Max Fardanesh (UC Davis) are also 4-2, while freshman Mason Bui, a four-star recruit out of Yorba Linda High School, made his collegiate dual match debut with a singles win at No. 6 on March 4.

UP NEXT
UCI begins Big West play on the road, making the trek to Hawai'i for a 5 p.m. (HT)/8 p.m. (PT) match on Saturday, March 29.