No. 46 UC Irvine (14-4, 4-0) Men’s Tennis defeated the UC San Diego Tritons (6-11, 3-2) 4-0 at Anteater Tennis Stadium on April 9 in conference play.
The Tritons and Anteaters last faced off in April of 2024, when the Anteaters defeated the Tritons 4-0 in San Diego.
UCI entered the matchup coming off a 4-1 road win against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where the ‘Eaters dropped the first two doubles matches but won the first four singles matches.
UCSD, however, entered the dual following a large 4-2 Big West victory over Hawai’i in Honolulu.
On Court 1, the No. 74-ranked pair of sophomore Andy Nguyen and senior Noah Zamora swept Triton junior Zach Pellouchoud and senior Pelayo Rodriguez 6-0 to give UCI a 1-0 lead in the doubles portion of the dual.
On Court 3, the Tritons tied the doubles portion as sophomore Carson Lee and senior Diogo Tinoco beat graduate student Sohrob Amiryavari and freshman Ruining Huang 6-1.
The Anteaters, however, secured the doubles point with a 6-3 victory on Court 5 by sophomore Max Fardanesh and senior Rithvik Krishna over freshman David Adamson and senior Joseph Teh, giving UCI a 1-0 advantage in the dual.
In singles, Nguyen was victorious 6-3 on Court 2. He then dominated in the second set 6-0, earning a point for Irvine and pushing the team to a 2-0 lead.
On Court 1, No. 59 Zamora — who has arguably been the top singles player in the Big West this season — defeated Lee 6-2 in the first set and followed with a 6-1 victory in the second set, extending the Anteater lead to 3-0.
Fardanesh won the first set on Court 5 against Adamson 6-2. In a closer second set, Fardanesh still claimed a 6-3 victory, sealing the 4-0 victory for the ‘Eaters.
When play was stopped, Krishna was up a set on Court 3 against Rodriguez; Pellouchoud was up a set on Court 4 against Huang; and Amiryavari was up a set against senior Charles Qian on Court 6.
The Anteaters are tied atop the Big West standings at 4-0 with the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. UCSB claimed its fourth Big West win with a 4-1 result over UCSD on April 11 to tie with UCI for first in the standings.
UC Irvine faced No. 43 UC Santa Barbara at Anteater Tennis Stadium on April 12 where they fell 4-0. This dual victory clinched the Big West regular season championship and number one seed in the Big West Championship for UCSB.
Next up, the Anteaters will take on the UC Davis Aggies on April 19 in their final regular season dual. This is a pivotal matchup as the winner will most likely be the second seed in the Big West Championship
Jack Fedor is a Sports Editor. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Jaheem Conley.