March 10, 2025
National Rankings
Men's Volleyball - No. 4
Women's Water Polo - No. 8
Baseball - No. 18
Men's Tennis - No. 41
• UCI picked up Player/Athlete of the Week in five different sports. Baseball player Anthony Martinez was named Big West Offensive Player of the Week, men’s volleyball player Hilir Henno was named Big West Offensive Player of the Week, Track & Field athlete Kailah McKenzie was the Big West Women's Field Athlete of the Week, Lauren Hett claimed Women’s Water Polo Player of the Week, and Andy Nguyen Men’s Tennis Player of the Week.
• UC Irvine downed UC Davis, 88-59, inside the University Credit Union behind sophomore guard Myles Che's impressive 31-point performance. Che was almost perfect from the floor, shooting 10-11, including 3-3 from three-point range. He was also 8-9 from the line. It was the first time an Anteater has scored 30 or more since Dawson Baker had 33 on Feb. 23, 2023.
• The Anteaters then pulled off a second half comeback in their 97-88 victory at UC Santa Barbara on Mar. 8. UCI erased a 13-point halftime deficit with a 67-point second half. Jurian Dixon led the way with his career-best 23 points on 6-9 shooting, including two three-pointers, while remaining perfect from the stripe (9-9). Devin Tillis was right behind with 21 points.
• UCI set a new school record as they won their nation's best 14th true road win of the season at UCSB. The 'Eaters also have a combined 17 wins away from Irvine, ranking first in the nation.
• Men's basketball's Bent Leuchten jumped into UCI's single season rebounding ranks and currently places sixth with 290.
• The Anteaters won their fifth straight contest, ending the regular season with a 27-5 overall and 17-3 in the Big West. 27 wins are the program's most since the historic 31-6 run in 2018-19.
• Men's basketball begins the Hercules Tires Big West Championship Friday (Mar. 14) where they will battle the winner of No. 3 seed UC Riverside and No. 6 UC Davis/No. 7 Cal Poly at 8:30 p.m. at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada.
• Women's basketball closed out the regular season with home wins over UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara to clinch the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Hercules Tires Big West Championships. The Anteaters will be looking to defend their conference title starting in the semifinals on Friday, March 14, where they will face the winner of No. 3 UC Davis and No. 6 Long Beach State/No. 7 UC Riverside at 2:30 p.m. at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada.
• The Anteaters' defense continues to be among the best in the nation, ranking seventh in all of NCAA Division I in field goal percentage defense (.352) and 10th in scoring defense (54.0 ppg).
• Anteater baseball improved to 11-4 with a win at San Diego and home series win over Long Beach State to start Big West play. They remain at No. 18 in the national rankings while impressively sitting No. 1 nationally in triples with 11 and No. 2 with 52 hit by pitch.
• Anthony Martinez earned Big West Field Player of the Week for the third time in his career after hitting his first home run of the season and driving in nine. Trevor Hansen had a career performance striking out nine in seven 2-hit innings to win the game and series Sunday.
• Men’s volleyball player Hilir Henno was instrumental in UCI’s 3-0 victories over No. 8 Pepperdine and Sacred Heart last week and was named Big West Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season.
• The senior averaged 4.17 kills, 5.25 points, 1.00 digs, and 0.83 service aces over the two matches. On the season, Henno leads the Big West and is third in points in the country (5.25) and is fourth in kills (4/29) and aces (.673) nationally.
• Freshman middle blocker, Micah Goss hit .769, recording 10 kills on 13 swings without an error last week. He has now gone four consecutive matches without an error. For the season, Goss is ranked sixth nationally in blocks with a 1.13 average.
• No. 4 UCI is idle this week.
• Men's tennis, which is ranked 41st in the nation, won three home matches last week, defeating Temple (4-0), Villanova (7-0) and LMU (4-2). The Anteaters improved to 8-3 on the season. Noah Zamora is ranked 54th in singles, while Zamora/Andy Nguyen are 90th in doubles.
• Women's tennis reeled in a 4-3 victory over Utah State on Sunday (Mar. 12). The Anteaters debuted two new doubles pairs in Asha Gidwani/Nour Khayat at No. 3's who won 6-2 and Haily Huynh/Kayla Meraz at No. 1's who clinched the point with their 6-4 victory. H Huynh played the hero in singles for the second straight match, clinching the 'Eaters win behind her 7-6 (9-7), 6-1 outing at the No. 4 spot.
• Women's water polo won both their Big West contests, defeating Cal State Fullerton (W, 16-5) and No. 9/7 UC San Diego (W, 16-11). Both Nioka Thomas and Lauren Hett recorded career-highs in goals with Thomas scoring five at the Titans and Hett tallying five at the Tritons.
• Track & field kicked off the outdoor season with 10 event wins at the Beach Opener and Ben Brown Invitational. In Fullerton, DeAna Davis (Women's Hammer), Nyla Baker (Women's Discus), Zharia Taylor (Women's High Jump), Esmeray Demirbas (Women's 400H), Angel Cordero (Men's 800m) and Jacob Hawkins (Men's Discus) finished first in their respective events. Liam Miksic (Men's Javelin), Joshua Schuld (Men's Steeple), Kaia Schmidt (Women's Steeple) and Kailah McKenzie (Women's High Jump) added individual victories in Long Beach.