California Irvine Athletics

2025 BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS
Quarterfinals
[2] UC Irvine (15-5, 5-1 Big West) vs.
[7] UC Riverside (2-17, 0-6 Big West)
Date: Friday, April 25
Time: 9 a.m.
Location: Barnes Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.
Live Scoring

Semifinals
Date: Saturday, April 26
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Barnes Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.
Live Scoring

Championship Match
Date: Sunday, April 27
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Barnes Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.
Live Scoring

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - The 49th-ranked and second-seeded UC Irvine men's tennis team begins its Big West Championship title defense against No. 7 seed UC Riverside in the quarterfinal round on Friday, April 25. First serve is set for 9 a.m. at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. The winner will advance to Saturday's semifinal (10 a.m.), while the championship match is slated for 10 a.m. on Sunday, April 27. 

ANTEATER TIDBITS
• UCI has been among the top-50 in the ITA Rankings since Feb. 20, and came in as high as No. 36 this season.
• The 'Eaters are 15-5 with all five losses coming to teams that have been ranked this year, including four currently in the top-25.
• The Anteaters have been impressive in singles where they are 62-33 (.653) in dual matches and 20-5 (.800) in Big West play.
• Andy Nguyen (2) and Noah Zamora (2) both won multiple Big West Player of the Week awards in 2025.
• UC Irvine won the Big West Championship in 2022 and 2024.

BIG WEST NOTABLES
The Anteaters have advanced to the final of the Big West Championships in each of the last three seasons. Overall, they are 10-0 in quarterfinal matches, 11-18 in semifinals and 5-6 in their 11 championship appearances. UCI won the conference tournament in 2005, 2010, 2011, 2022 and 2024. Last year, the 'Eaters upset top-seeded and 45th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, 4-1, in the title match. In Big West postseason meetings, UC Irvine is 4-0 vs. UC Riverside, 2-1 vs. UC Davis, 9-0 vs. Cal Poly, 3-0 vs. Hawai'i and 4-14 vs. UC Santa Barbara. This is the first year UC San Diego is competing in the Big West Championships.

AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
Senior Noah Zamora came in at No. 70 in the latest NCAA Division I men's singles rankings released by the ITA on April 22. Zamora picked up his fifth ranked win of the 2024-25 season after taking down No. 107 Azuma Visaya of Hawai'i, 6-3, 6-4, on March 29. 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, Zamora/Andy Nguyen 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 owns a team-best 14-2 dual match singles record. His two losses came against No. 20 UCLA (Jan. 17) and at USC (Jan. 20). Since falling against the Trojans, Nguyen has gone 13-0 with three matches that went unfinished, and has dropped only two sets during that stretch. The Long Beach native earned his second Big West Player of the Week award on March 26 after going 2-0 in singles against No. 62 Dartmouth and No. 10 Harvard. Nguyen took home the Anteaters' first award of the season on March 12, following a 5-0 week where he picked up two singles and three doubles victories against Temple, Villanova and LMU. During the fall, Nguyen also defeated a pair of ranked opponents, upsetting No. 52 Iiro Vasa of San Diego and No. 125 Nicholas Godsick of Stanford. In 2024, Nguyen was the Big West Freshman of the Year and an all-conference selection in both singles and doubles.

CONFERENCE DOMINANCE
Senior Noah Zamora has been dominant in Big West play with a 22-1 career record. He is unbeaten in his last 29 outings against conference foes (including postseason) where he is 21-0 with eight 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. The San Diego native also earned his third and fourth career Big West Player of the Week awards this season (March 19 & April 23). In 2025, he is 10-4 in singles, all at No. 1.

LAST TIME OUT
No. 46 UC Irvine closed out the regular season with a 4-2 victory over UC Davis last Saturday at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The Aggies clinched the doubles point for the early lead, but the 'Eaters bounced back in singles, taking four of the five completed matches. Max Fardanesh set the tone with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph at the fifth position. Andy Nguyen then took down Lucas Bollinger, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 2 to give UCI the lead. Noah Zamora followed with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over Ryan Torres at the top of the lineup. UCD stayed alive momentarily with a three-set victory on court three, but about a minute later, Sohrob Amiryavari closed out the decisive 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win at No. 6.

SCOUTING THE HIGHLANDERS
No. 7 seed UC Riverside (2-17, 0-6 Big West) went winless in conference play for the second year in a row. Justin Lamy has played all his matches at the top of the singles lineup where he has four victories. Aarav Sane is also 5-7 at Nos. 2 and 3. Lamy/Ryan Huynh have paired up for a team-leading four doubles wins at No. 1.

A GLANCE AT THE BRACKET
UC Santa Barbara (17-3, 6-0 Big West), which is ranked 34th in the nation, earned the No. 1 seed and a bye into Saturday's semifinals where it will face the winner of fourth-seeded UC San Diego (6-13, 3-3 Big West) and No. 5 Cal Poly (8-14, 2-4 Big West). No. 3 UC Davis (13-6, 4-2 Big West) and No. 6 Hawai'i (4-16, 1-5 Big West) will also square off in the opening round. The winner of that match then takes on the winner of No. 2 UCI vs. No. 7 UC Riverside in the semifinals.

CRUNCH TIME
UC Irvine was trailing 3-2 in a pair of 4-3 victories this season. At Pepperdine (Jan. 18), Rithvik Krishna kept UCI alive, outlasting Lasse Poertner, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, at the fourth spot. Hiroki Sakagawa then delivered the match-clincher, taking down Aleksa Pisanic, 7-6 (6), 6-4, at No. 3. The 'Eaters ended a 23-match drought in the all-time series with their first win over the Waves since 1992. Pepperdine came in at No. 25 in the latest ITA Rankings. On March 22, Noah Zamora and Lawee Sherif played the heroes against No. 62 Dartmouth. Zamora brought the Anteaters even with a 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 triumph at the top of the lineup, while Sherif battled through what ended up being a season-ending injury to take down Yujiro Onuma, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4, for the win.

LEAVING A LEGACY
Fourth-year seniors Noah Zamora, Rithvik Krishna and Lawee Sherif are 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 62-27 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 68-29 (49-16 dual), while Krishna is 50-29 (34-18 dual). Sherif, who had a career-high 17 victories last season, rounds out the group with 29 wins (21 dual). Zamora is a three-time All-Big West selection, while Krishna earned all-conference honors as a sophomore and junior.

ENTERING THE MIX
UC Irvine has four newcomers with two transfers and a pair of true freshmen. Sophomore transfer Max Fardanesh (UC Davis) is third on the team with nine dual-match singles victories, including six match-clinchers. Ruining Huang, a freshman from Hangzhou, Zhejuang, China, also has eight wins, while graduate transfer Sohrob Amiryavari is 7-5.

UP NEXT
The winner of the Big West Championship will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The selection show is scheduled for Monday, April 28 at 2:30 p.m. (PDT).