By Sebastian Suarez and Eashan Kotha
Men’s Water Polo
No.7 UCI men’s water polo (10-7) lost to No.3 USC (19-1) last Saturday 8-13 at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center in Los Angeles.
The ‘Eaters played a formidable match against USC. Freshmen Fynn Schuetz and Casey Lynton along with senior Kyle Trush, who all scored two goals each. Senior Antoine Lena, who assisted three times, scored one goal, while Stiefel added another.
Senior keeper Matej Matijevic protected the goal 15 times from USC’s advances.
The Trojans, however, scored 13 goals, three of which were made by freshman Marko Vavic. Sophomore Thomas Dunstan and junior Zach D’Sa each scored two goals. The remaining goals were divided evenly among Blake Edwards, Matteo Morelli, Mihajlo Milicevic, James Walters, Sam Slobodien and Christian Hockenbury.
Women’s Tennis
UCI women’s tennis team recovered last Friday from their defeats a day prior, winning three of the seven matches, including two singles and one doubles.
In singles matches, UCI sophomore Yulin Chen defeated Lana Rinaldi of Grand Canyon University in three sets: 1-6, 7-5, 10-2. Fellow sophomore Arianna Tilbury provided another victory for UCI, defeating Gemma Garcia from San Diego University in three sets, 3-6, 1-2, and in the last one Gemma retired from the match.
Tilbury also teamed up with sophomore Jacqueline Tsodikova to upend Cal State Northridge’s Arpe Bagumyan and Elisaveta Nosenko, 8-2.
The following day, the last day at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, the ‘Eaters obtained victories in all five single matches.
Tilbury earned another victory, bringing down Cal State Long Beach freshman Sadaf Sadeghvaziri in two sets, 6-2, 7-5. Chen also defeated Masako Makiba from Cal State Fullerton in two sets 6-4, 6-3.
In three sets, UCI’s freshman Clair Dean mastered Cal State Fullerton’s Taylor Valenzuela (CSF), 6-4, 2-6, 10-8. Tsodikova and UCI sophomore Gillian Parker won their single matches, against Saga Shermis from the University of Houston and Caisey Lee Emery of Cal State Fullerton, due to injury retirement in the second set.
Men’s Tennis
Senior Sebastian Heim and junior Luis Lopez battled Arizona State’s top-seeded doubles pair of Benjamin Hannestad and Tim Ruehl in the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships held in Malibu on Saturday.
UCI’s duo reached the quarterfinals after defeating Loyola Marymount’s Lukas Moenter and Lucas Moreno, 8-3, and Felix Albert Fabian Woehrl of Hawai’i, 8-2. The only ‘Eaters playing that day, the duo’s strong efforts fell short with an 8-4 loss.
Collectively the men’s tennis team had a strong start at the Championships with six singles and two doubles wins on the first day. In the round of 64, however, many fell short in their efforts to reach the finals.
With the conclusion of Heim and Lopez’s match at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center, UCI will now start to prepare for its next dual-match season starting on Jan. 19 at San Diego.
Women’s Golf
UCI women’s golf held firm at the second out of 14 at the Pat Lesser Harbottle Seattle U Invitational this past week.
ND state took the top spot with a three-day total of 909, while UCI finished with a total of 921. Graduate student Avery French lead the UCI team with final of 222 (74, 73, 75), her best finish this season and good enough to tie for third place overall with Chandler Gallagher from UMKC.
Junior Janet Yeo tied for sixteenth at 231, while senior Kaley In was tied for twenty-first with a 232. Senior Camille Wagg tied for thirty-first at 236 and sophomore Sabrina Li was tied for sixty-ninth at 252.
UCI will have a week of rest before it hosts the UC Irvine Invitational Oct. 30-31 at the Santa Ana Country Club.