ITA Rankings
IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine men's tennis came in at No. 44 in the final ITA team rankings, while
Noah Zamora closed out the year among the top-70 singles players in the nation.
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In April, UCI won its second-straight Big West Championship and third in the last four years. The Anteaters were among the top-50 in every ITA Poll since February 20, with a high ranking of No. 36.
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The 'Eaters (18-6) posted their eighth-straight winning campaign, while their 18 victories were their most in a season in 10 years. UC Irvine had impressive wins over No. 25 Pepperdine, No. 55 Pacific and then No. 62 Dartmouth, while all six of their losses came to teams that made the NCAA Tournament, including five that advanced to at least the second round and earned a top-25 final ranking (No. 4 Stanford, No. 9 San Diego, No. 14 UCLA, No. 20 USC, No. 21 Harvard).
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Senior
Noah Zamora, who was ranked in every singles poll this year, closed out the season at No. 66. Zamora was named the Big West Player of the Year, making him the 10th Anteater to earn the conference's top award and first since 2015. He concluded the campaign with a 21-9 overall record, while he went 13-5 in dual matches, all at No. 1. Zamora went unbeaten against conference opponents with a 7-0 mark, including three victories at the Big West Championships. In the final, Zamora took down No. 63 Gianluca Brunkow of UC Santa Barbara for the match-clincher. It was his sixth ranked victory of the season.
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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 after upsetting 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.
