IRVINE, Calif. - The 46th-ranked UC Irvine men's tennis team blanked UC San Diego, 4-0, Wednesday afternoon at Anteater Tennis Stadium.
 
The 'Eaters, winners of their last four, improved to 14-4 overall and 4-0 in Big West play. They remain one of two unbeaten teams in the conference along with No. 43 UC Santa Barbara, who they are set to face on Saturday.
 
The Anteaters' 74th-ranked duo of Andy Nguyen and Noah Zamora came out firing as it took them less than 20 minutes to shut out Zach Pellouchoud/Pelayo Rodriguez, 6-0, at the top of the doubles lineup.
 
The Tritons (6-11, 3-2 Big West) evened the playing field with a 6-1 victory on court two.
 
The doubles point came down to No. 3 where Max Fardanesh and Rithvik Krishna held a slight 4-3 advantage. The UC Irvine tandem then finished strong, taking the next two games for the 6-3 victory over David Adamson/Joseph Teh.
 
UCI kept the momentum in singles as Nguyen made quick work of Diogo Tinoco, 6-3, 6-0, at the second position. Nguyen is now 12-0 in his last 14 outings.
 
Zamora, who is ranked 59th in the nation, was also dominant on court one where he took down Carson Lee, 6-2, 6-1. Zamora extended an impressive streak in which he is unbeaten in his last 27 matches (20-0) against conference opponents. He owns a career Big West singles record of 21-1.
 
Max Fardanesh then upended Adamson, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 5 to earn his third-straight match-clinching win.  
 
UC Irvine is back at Anteater Tennis Stadium on Saturday, April 12, when it hosts No. 43 UC Santa Barbara at 12 p.m.
 
UCI and UCSB (13-3, 3-0 Big West) are the only two Big West teams who are nationally ranked and unbeaten in conference. UC Santa Barbara will head to UC San Diego before making its way to Irvine.
 
The Anteaters and Gauchos have also met in each of the last three Big West championship matches with UC Irvine winning in 2022 and 2024, and UCSB claiming the title in 2023.