Senior Noah Zamora has become the first UC Irvine men’s tennis player to reach the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament since 1989.
This year is the first year that the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships are being held in the fall, with the team season still taking place in the spring.
Zamora’s run to be one of the top 32 players in Division I men’s tennis began in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional Championship in Tempe, Arizona. Zamora defeated senior Diego Dalisay of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in the Round of 64, 6-4 in the first match and 6-2 in the second match.
In the tournament’s round of 32, Zamora defeated graduate student Sebastian Nothhaft of Loyola Marymount University following a first match 3-6 loss, a second match 6-3 victory and a deciding third match 6-4 victory. This was the first time a member of UC Irvine’s Men’s Tennis team qualified for the Round of 16 in at least nine years.
In the tournament’s Round of 16, Zamora defeated junior Lucca Liu of UC Santa Barbara 6-4 in their first match and 6-3 in their second match.
In the quarterfinals, Zamora defeated No. 109 senior Casper Christensen of the University of Arizona 6-4 in their first match and 7-5 in their second match.
Zamora picked up his final victory of the semifinal tournament against redshirt sophomore Emon van Loben Sels of UC Los Angeles with a 6-2 victory in their first matchup and 6-1 in their second matchup.
When Zamora qualified for the final of the Southwest Regional Championship, he became the first UC Irvine male player to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship since 2011.
At the NCAA Singles Championship in Waco, Texas, Zamora accomplished a feat that no one on his team had accomplished in 35 years — he upset No. 13 junior Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in two matches.
Dominko took the first set against Zamora, who answered back to tie 1-1. Following the second set, Zamora took the 2-1 lead and kept at it, eventually taking the first match with a score of 6-4.
The second match followed the same path, with Dominko taking the first set, Zamora tying and eventually taking the lead en route to another 6-4 match victory.
Zamora led Dominko in points 60-57 and aces four to two. Dominkio led Zamora with unforced errors, six to four, and double faults, six to four.
“I’m just happy I’m here honestly,” Zamora said on the national stream on the first day of the NCAA Individual Championships. “I’m lucky to squeeze through this round, I know that the guy’s a great player. I’ve been looking through his results and I saw him play a little bit online.”
Zamora faced No. 37 senior Pedro Vives of Texas Christian University but fell in two matches which ended his national championship run.
Next, the whole men’s team will start the team portion of the season as they head north to Los Angeles to take on UCLA of the Big 10 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Jan. 17.
Jack Fedor is a Sports Editor. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Bianca Marroquin