2024-25 Men's Tennis Season Review

May 15, 2025

2024-25 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
• UC Irvine won its second-straight Big West Championship and third in the last four years.
• The Anteaters earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Championships, marking the program’s 14th appearance.
• UCI was among the top-50 in every ITA Poll since Feb. 20, with a high ranking of No. 36 this year.
• The ‘Eaters (18-6) had their eighth-straight winning campaign, while the 18 victories were their most in a season since 2015.
• UC Irvine had two ranked wins, defeating No. 62 Dartmouth and No. 34 UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championship.
• All six of UCI’s losses came to teams that made the NCAA tournament and were ranked at some point this year.
• Noah Zamora became the first Anteater in 10 years to be named the Big West Player of the Year.
• Zamora was also the first ‘Eater to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championships in 14 years.
• He defeated No. 13 Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in the Round of 64 for UC Irvine’s first NCAA Singles win since 1989.
• Zamora and Andy Nguyen were first-team all-conference selections in both singles and doubles.
• Max Fardanesh and Rithvik Krishna garnered All-Big West honorable mention recognition in singles.
• Mike Saunders earned his third career Big West Coach of the Year award as he also received the honor in 2022 and 2024.
• The Anteaters were impressive in singles with a 75-40 record (.652) in 24 dual matches.
• They were even better in Big West regular-season play where they went 20-5 (.800) through six contests.

NCAA NOTABLES
UC Irvine made its 14th NCAA Division I Championship appearance, and third in the last four seasons. The Anteaters put up a fight against seventh-ranked San Diego, but ultimately fell, 4-2, in the first round. Sohrob Amiryavari and Andy Nguyen both earned straight-set singles wins against the Toreros. During the regular season, UCI faced six opponents that made the NCAA tournament, including five that advanced to at least the second round.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Senior Noah Zamora, who came in at No. 65 in the latest ITA men’s singles rankings, was named the Big West Player of the Year. He is the 10th Anteater to earn the top award and first since 2015. Zamora closed out the campaign with a 21-9 overall singles record, while he went 13-5 in dual matches, all at No. 1. He went unbeaten against conference opponents with a 7-0 mark, including three victories at the Big West Championships. In the final, he took down No. 63 Gianluca Brunkow of UC Santa Barbara, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, for the title-clinching win. It was his sixth ranked victory of the season. During the fall, Zamora was the first ‘Eater 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 punched his NCAA ticket with a runner-up showing at the ITA Southwest Regional.

NGUYEN WINS
Sophomore Andy Nguyen, who was the 2024 Big West Freshman of the Year, garnered all-conference honors in singles and doubles for the second-straight season. He had a team-best 17-2 dual-match singles record while playing primarily at No. 2. Nguyen finished the year on a 16-match win streak as his last loss came on January 20. He went 6-0 against Big West opponents in 2025, including a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over UC Davis’ Lucas Bollinger to clinch the Anteaters’ 4-3 comeback win in the semifinals of the conference tournament. Nguyen defeated three ranked opponents on the year, upsetting No. 52 Iiro Vasa of San Diego and No. 125 Nicholas Godsick of Stanford in the fall, and No. 83 Savriyan Danilov of San Diego in the NCAA tournament.

CHAMPIONSHIP REWIND
UC Irvine won three matches in three days at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego for its second-straight Big West Championship and third in the last four seasons. The second-seeded Anteaters opened the tournament with a 4-0 sweep of No. 7 seed UC Riverside. That put them in the semifinals against No. 3 UC Davis. The ‘Eaters were down 3-0 against the Aggies, but straight-set victories from Sohrob Amiryavari, Noah Zamora and Max Fardanesh tied it up at 3-3. It boiled down to the second position where Andy Nguyen came up clutch with the decisive 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 triumph. The Anteaters advanced to the championship to face top-seeded and 34th-ranked UC Santa Barbara for the fourth-straight year. The Gauchos took an early 2-0 lead before UC Irvine came charging back with wins from Rithvik Krishna, Fardanesh and Nguyen. UCSB took court six to stay alive, but Zamora answered with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over 63rd-ranked Gianluca Brunkow to secure the title.

LEAVING A LEGACY
Fourth-year seniors Noah Zamora, Rithvik Krishna and Lawee Sherif will graduate as one of the most accomplished classes in program history. During their time at UCI, the Anteaters won three Big West Championships and made three NCAA team appearances (2022, 2024, 2025), while they also claimed a co-Big West regular-season title in 2023. Since their arrival, the ‘Eaters have boasted a 65-28 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 71-30 (52-17 dual), with his 52 victories in dual match play ranking 23rd in school history. Krishna is 52-31 (36-20 dual), and Sherif, who had a career-high 17 wins last season, rounds out the group with 29 victories (21 dual). Zamora is an eight-time All-Big West selection, while Krishna earned all-conference honors as a sophomore, junior and senior.

CONFERENCE DOMINANCE
Noah Zamora was dominant in The Big West where he finished with a 25-1 career singles record. He went unbeaten in his last 32 outings against conference foes (including postseason) where he was 24-0 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 four-time all-conference selection in both singles and doubles. He was named the 2025 Big West Player of the Year and 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 nods this season.

CRUNCH TIME
UC Irvine went 5-0 in 4-3 matches, and in three of those victories, they came back from a 3-2 deficit. 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. Against UC Davis in the Big West semifinals, Max Fardanesh tied it up at 3-3 and Andy Nguyen delivered the match-clinching 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory.

IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Three of UC Irvine’s four newcomers were in the singles lineup for more than 75% of the team’s matches. Sophomore transfer Max Fardanesh, who was an All-Big West honorable mention selection, led the way with a 12-3 record. He went 8-0 against Big West opponents with a 5-0 mark during the regular season and three wins in the tournament. Graduate transfer Sohrob Amiryavari was also 9-6, while freshman Ruining Huang notched eight victories in dual match play.

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
Max Fardanesh was recognized for his work on the court and in the classroom with his first career CSC Academic All-District selection. To be eligible, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, and have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher. They also must have played in 70% of the team’s scored matches. Fardanesh is majoring in political science.