UC Irvine Women’s Tennis (11-7, 2-4) fell to No. 43 UC Santa Barbara (12-8, 6-0), 6-1, at Anteater Tennis Stadium on April 11. After an intense beginning to the game, UCI scored the first point, and then was overtaken by UCSB during singles, losing all six matches.
Doubles matches kept everyone on the edge of their seats, with the back and forth between both the tennis ball and the scores of each match. The first doubles match to conclude was on court three between Anteaters’ juniors Bella Pitchford and Quin Brady against Gaucho freshman My-Anh Holmes and sophomore Emma Tutoveanu. Pitchford and Brady were unable to gain any points, and the match ended 6-0. The second match, on court one, was between UCI’s team captain and senior Carolyna Fowler and senior Amanda Perez and UCSB’s graduate student Shanelle Iaconi and freshman Isabella Wong. Fowler and Perez fought hard, and the final score of the match was 6-4, UCI.
With both teams having a win, the third game decided who would get the first point of the game. On court two, Irvine sophomores Yen Nhi Huynh and Maily Huynh faced off against Santa Barbara’s junior Ekua Youri and redshirt freshman Caroline Beard. After both duos reached six points, a tiebreaker was required. Viewers held their breaths as the match went on, and the tiebreaker score ended 7-4, UCI, ending the match 7-6 with Eaters clinching the doubles point. This was the last time UCI scored during the game.
The first singles match concluded on court three, UCI’s senior Haily Huynh went up against UCSB’s Wong, both sets ending with a score of 6-1. On court four, Pitchford went up against Gaucho sophomore Lily Pradkin, the first set ending 6-1 and the second ending 6-0. On court two, Perez and Tutoveanu went head to head, the first set ending 6-0 and the second 6-3.
On court six, UCI’s freshman Sayuri Parandian went against Beard, both sets ending with a score of 6-3. On court five, Holmes beat Maily Huynh, first set 6-3 and second set 6-1. After the first five matches concluded, both teams crowded on their respective sides of court two to watch the final singles match of the day conclude.
The last singles match to end, between Yen Nhi Huynh and Youri, took place on court one. Closer than the rest of the matches, the first set ended 6-4. The second set, after a long and hard fight from both players, ended 7-5. This concludes the game, with the final score of 6-1.
After their loss to UCSB, the Anteaters moved on the next day to play No. 73 Cal Poly for their senior game, and they defeated the Mustangs 4-3 at the Anteater Tennis Stadium after the game was delayed two hours because of the rain. Next, they go on to play No. 69 Long Beach State on April 18 in Long Beach, Calif.
Milo Cramer is a Sports Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. They can be reached at mncramer@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor, Tracy Sandoval
