California Irvine Athletics

NCAA First Round
No. 44 UC Irvine (18-5) at
No. 7 San Diego (24-3)
Date: Saturday, May 3
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Hogan Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.
Watch | Live Scoring 

NCAA Second Round
Date: Sunday, May 4
Time: 12 p.m.
Location: Hogan Tennis Center - San Diego, Calif.

Match Notes

IRVINE, Calif. - The 44th-ranked UC Irvine men's tennis team will make the drive down to the University of San Diego for an NCAA First Round match against the host and seventh-ranked Toreros on Saturday, May 3. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Hogan Tennis Center. The winner will advance to Sunday's second round to face either No. 28 USC or No. 40 Arizona State.

QUICK HITS
• UC Irvine has been among the top-50 in the ITA Rankings since Feb. 20, and came in as high as No. 36 this year.
• The Anteaters won the Big West Championship last weekend, upsetting No. 34 UC Santa Barbara, 4-3, in the final.
• The 'Eaters (18-5) have their eighth-straight winning campaign, while the 18 victories are their most in a season since 2015.
• All five of UCI's losses came to teams that were ranked at some point this year, including three currently in the top-25.
• Noah Zamora became the first Anteater in 10 years to be named the Big West Player of the Year.
• Zamora and Andy Nguyen were also 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.

NCAA NOTABLES
UC Irvine will be making its 14th NCAA Division I Championship appearance, and third in the last four seasons. Last year, the 'Eaters traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, where they fell to eventual national champion TCU in the first round. In 2022, the Anteaters also came up short against the University of San Diego in the opening round at USC's Marks Stadium. UCI won six NCAA Division II titles before making the move to Division I back in 1978.

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 owns a team-leading 21-8 overall singles record, while he is 13-4 in dual matches, all at No. 1. He went unbeaten against conference opponents with a 7-0 record, 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 fifth 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 owns a team-best 16-2 dual-match singles record while playing primarily at No. 2. Nguyen is on a 15-match win streak as he has not lost since 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. 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.

CHAMPIONSHIP REWIND
UC Irvine won three matches in three days at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego to win 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.

SCOUTING THE TOREROS
Seventh-ranked San Diego (24-3) is hosting the NCAA First and Second Rounds for the first time in program history. The Toreros won the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles. They are led by back-to-back WCC Player of the Year Oliver Tarvet, who is 18-1 and ranked third in the country. Tarvet and Stian Klaassen are also 11th in the nation in doubles. UCI and USD last met in the first round of 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.

A GLANCE AT THE REST OF THE FIELD
No. 28 USC (14-10), which missed the postseason last year, makes its return with the program's 16th NCAA appearance in the last 17 seasons. The Trojans are led by Peter Makk (14-7), who is ranked 16th in the nation and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. Arizona State (12-11) is ranked 40th and boasts the No. 38 singles player in the country in Bor Aartnak.

CONFERENCE DOMINANCE
Senior 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 is 5-0 in 4-3 matches, and was trailing 3-2 in three of those victories. 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.

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 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 65-27 dual match record. Individually, all three have at least 25 overall singles wins. Zamora leads the way at 71-29 (52-16 dual), while Krishna is 52-30 (36-19 dual). Sherif, who had a career-high 17 victories last season, rounds out the group with 29 wins (21 dual). Zamora is an eight-time All-Big West selection, while Krishna earned all-conference honors as a sophomore, junior and senior.

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, leads 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 is also 8-6, while freshman Ruining Huang is 8-10.