The No. 45 UC Irvine Men’s Tennis team (9-3) was scheduled to compete against No. 46 Yale (9-5) on March 14, but the dual was called off since a suitable start time could not be found. This would have been the Anteaters’ highest profile home dual since going against No. 64 University of the Pacific on Feb. 7.
Due to constantly changing weather conditions in Irvine throughout the week, a time of play could not be decided upon. Following the inability to find time to play and constant rain, the dual between the two top 75 teams was canceled.
The Anteaters have been undefeated since getting swept 4-0 by No. 8 Stanford of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the first ever match at Arrillaga Tennis center on Feb. 23.
On March 1, UCI defeated Portland University of the West Coast Conference. The Anteaters went up 4-0 early, until Irvine sophomore Max Fardanesh fell to Portland sophomore Tom Garcia to cut the lead to three. However, UCI sophomore Andy Nguyen and freshman Ruining Huang won their singles matches to secure a 6-1 victory over the Pilots.
Next, the Anteaters continued with two more strong showings. On March 3, UCI defeated Temple University of the American Athletic Conference 4-0. This was followed up when Villanova University of the Big East came to Irvine on March 4, where they were decimated as every Anteater came out victorious in a 7-0 rout.
UC Irvine then came out with a 4-2 victory over No. 73 Loyola Marymount University Lions of the West Coast Conference in a home contest on March 9. The Anteaters went up 3-0 prior to a victory by Lion freshman Cesar Cruz in a singles point. LMU further ate into the ‘Eaters lead with a singles win by graduate student Jacopo Denitto. UCI eventually closed out the dual with a victory by senior Rithvik Krishna in a singles match.
The Anteaters’ scheduled opponent, Yale University Bulldogs of the Ivy League, played against the United States Naval Academy on March 11 — a dual where they swept 4-0.
UC Irvine also played their last dual against Navy on March 13, during which the ‘Eaters won the doubles point and the first five singles matches before Krishna fell to sophomore Jake Young, which made the Anteater victory 6-1.
The Bulldogs fell 4-3 against Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles on March 16. Next, Yale will head back home to face No. 72 St. John’s University of the Big East on March 22.
UCI will now begin their play against the Ivy League when they take on No. 62 Dartmouth College at Anteater Tennis Stadium on March 22.
Jack Fedor is a Sports Editor. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores