California Irvine Athletics

IRVINE, Calif. – Graduate student Hiroki Sakagawa earned his second-straight Big West Men's Tennis Player of the Week award the conference office announced Wednesday afternoon.
 
Sakagawa was recognized for a conference-leading fourth time this season after going 2-0 at No. 1 singles with a ranked win last week. On Friday, April 10, he defeated Jovan Lubbe of Cal Poly in straight sets to clinch UC Irvine's 4-2 team victory. After taking a 5-3 lead, Sakagawa kept his composure through a late rally as he went on to edge Lubbe in a first-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (9-7). Sakagawa rode that momentum to a resounding 6-1 win in the second. Earlier in the match, he teamed up with Tal Goodman to dispatch Raz Haviv/Sean Ferguson, 6-2, at No. 2, helping the Anteaters secure the doubles point.
 
Sakagawa came back two days later to upset No. 87 Lucca Liu of UC Santa Barbara, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. It was Sakagawa's second ranked victory of the season as he also took down No. 103 Manvydas Balciunas of San Diego on Feb. 6.
 
Sakagawa, who has played all his singles matches at the top of the lineup, improved to 11-3 overall and 3-0 against Big West opponents.
 
UCI will close out the regular season this weekend, hosting Hawai'i at 12 p.m. on Friday, April 17, before heading to UC San Diego on Saturday, April 18.