California Irvine Athletics

UC San Diego (6-10, 3-1 Big West) at
No. 46 UC Irvine (13-4, 3-0 Big West)
Date: Wednesday, April 9
Time: 2 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

No. 43 UC Santa Barbara (13-3, 3-0 Big West) at
No. 46 UC Irvine (13-4, 3-0 Big West)
Date: Saturday, April 12
Time: 12 p.m. (PDT)
Location: Anteater Tennis Stadium - Irvine, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - The 46th-ranked UC Irvine men's tennis team begins a regular-season ending three-match homestand this week. UCI will host UC San Diego at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, before welcoming No. 43 UC Santa Barbara to Anteater Tennis Stadium for a 12 p.m. showdown on Saturday, April 12.

ANTEATER TIDBITS
• UCI and UCSB enter the week tied for first in The Big West standings with identical 3-0 conference records.
• UC Irvine has been 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 13-4 with all four of their losses coming to teams that have been ranked in the top-25 this year.
• Andy Nguyen (2) and Noah Zamora (1) won three-straight Big West Player of the Week awards from March 12-19.
• Nguyen is tops on the squad with a 12-2 singles record and is unbeaten in his last 13 outings where he is 11-0.
• Zamora is 59th in the latest ITA national singles rankings, while Nguyen/Zamora are 74th in doubles.

AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
Senior Noah Zamora came in at No. 59 in the latest NCAA Division I men's singles rankings released by the ITA on April 8. 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. 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, who are ranked 74th in the nation, 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 12-2 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 11-0 with two matches that went unfinished, and has dropped only one set 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.

MORE ACCOLADES
Noah Zamora earned his first Big West Player of the Week award this season, and third of his career, on March 19. In a 6-1 victory over Navy, Zamora teamed up with Nguyen at No. 1 doubles where the duo saved match point before closing out the decisive 7-6 (5) win. Zamora then took down Herrick Legaspi, 6-4, 6-4, at the top of the singles lineup for his fifth consecutive victory. The San Diego native is 8-4 in singles and 7-4 in doubles.

LAST TIME OUT
No. 45 UC Irvine remained undefeated in Big West play after taking down Cal Poly, 4-1, this past Sunday at Ronca Tennis Center. The Mustangs started strong with 6-3 victories at Nos. 2 and 3 to win the doubles point. The Anteaters didn't trail for long as Andy Nguyen made quick work of Bastiaan Weststrate, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 2 singles to tie it up. Ruining Huang then won his third-straight singles match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Sean Kamyshev at the fourth position. Rithvik Krishna was next off the court at No. 3 where he upended John Cross, 6-3, 7-5, to give UCI a 3-0 advantage. Max Fardanesh then closed out a second-set tiebreaker to clinch UC Irvine's third consecutive win. Fardanesh defeated Jack McGary, 6-3, 7-6 (3), at No. 5.

SCOUTING THE TRITONS
UC San Diego (6-10, 3-1 Big West) earned a 4-2 win at Hawai'i in its last outing on Saturday, April 5. Carson Lee, a two-time Big West Player of the Week, leads the Tritons with a 10-3 record at No. 1 singles. UCI is 11-0 against UCSD since 2003.

SCOUTING THE GAUCHOS
No. 43 UC Santa Barbara (13-3, 3-0 Big West) is undefeated in Big West play after taking down UC Riverside, 4-1, on Monday. The Gauchos will play at Pepperdine (April 9) and at UC San Diego (April 11) before making their way to Irvine. UCSB has two ranked singles players in No. 79 Gianluca Brunkow and No. 110 Diogo Morais. Morais has a team-high 11 singles wins, while Dominique Rolland is 10-0. No. 48 Brunkow/Rolland are also 9-2 in doubles. UCI and UC Santa Barbara have met in each of the last three Big West championship matches with the Anteaters winning the conference tournament in 2022 and 2024.

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. 23 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 an injury to take down Yujiro Onuma, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4, to secure UCI's sixth-straight 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 60-26 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 66-29 (47-16 dual), while Krishna is 50-27 (34-16 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.

BIG WEST DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora has been dominant in Big West play with a 20-1 career record. He is unbeaten in his last 26 outings against conference foes (including postseason) where he is 19-0 with seven 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. 

MAKING AN IMPACT
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 second on the team with eight dual-match singles victories. Sophomore transfer Max Fardanesh (UC Davis) also has seven singles wins, including five match-clinchers, while graduate transfer Sohrob Amiryavari (UNLV) is 6-4. Freshman Mason Bui, a four-star recruit out of Yorba Linda High School, made his collegiate dual match debut with a straight-set triumph at No. 6 on March 4.

UP NEXT
UCI will host UC Davis in its regular-season finale on Saturday, April 19. First serve is set for 10 a.m. at Anteater Tennis Stadium.