California Irvine Athletics

IRVINE, Calif. - The 49th-ranked UC Irvine men's tennis team is headed back to San Diego to open the NCAA Division I Championship in the first round against the University of San Diego on Saturday, May 3.
 
The back-to-back Big West champion Anteaters and seventh-ranked Toreros are scheduled to square off at 1 p.m. The winners advance to the second round to face either USC or Arizona State on Sunday, May 4. All matches will be played at Hogan Tennis Center.
 
The 'Eaters (18-5) earned The Big West's automatic bid after claiming their sixth conference tournament title and third in the last four years. As the No. 2 seed, UCI won three matches in three days at Barnes Tennis Center, including a pair of 4-3 comeback victories in the semifinal and final. In the championship match, UC Irvine upset top-seeded and 34th-ranked UC Santa Barbara with senior Noah Zamora delivering the 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 title-clinching victory at the top of the singles lineup.
 
Zamora improved to 13-4 at No. 1 singles. He has five ranked wins this year, including at the NCAA Singles Championship where he defeated No. 13 Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in the Round of 64.
 
Andy Nguyen owns a team-best 16-2 record, while playing primarily at the second position. Nguyen has not lost in his last 18 outings. Max Fardanesh (12-3) and Rithvik Krishna (10-8) have also reached double digits in the win column.
 
San Diego (24-3) won the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles. Oliver Tarvet is ranked third in the nation in singles, while Savriyan Danilov is 78th. Tarvet and Stian Klaassen are also fifth in doubles.
 
UCI and USD are familiar foes, having faced each three other times in the last five years. The two teams last met in the 2022 NCAA Tournament where San Diego took the 4-0 victory in Los Angeles. The Anteaters' last win against the Toreros came in 2008.