The UC Irvine Men’s Tennis (14-8, 5-1) closed out their 2025-26 season at the Big West Championships on April 25, falling to UC Santa Barbara 0-4 after winning their match against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo the day before, 4-1. They had a strong season and displayed good sportsmanship throughout it, working together as a team and showing up and cheering on the women’s tennis team whenever they got the chance.
They played their first official season match against UCLA, falling 0-7, on Jan. 17. Their first win was against Saint Mary’s College, winning 4-3 after clinching the doubles point and winning three out of six of the singles matches on Feb. 21. Rising junior Ruining Huang, recent alumni Hiroki Sakagawa, and rising sophomore Greg Gamal gained the singles points of that match — Gamal pulling UCI into the lead and remaining there.
Before their official season, they attended invitationals and championships, such as The Big West Fall Invite and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Sectional Championships. At the ITA Sectional Championships, Sakagawa competed in both singles and doubles competitions. He defeated University of Oregon’s recent alumni Lachlan Robertson in two sets after needing a tie breaker in the singles competition. In the doubles competition, graduate student Tal Goodman and Sakagawa defeated Arizona State University’s rising junior Ofek Shimanov and rising senior Jelani Sarr in two sets, and then in their next match fell to Santa Clara University in two sets.
Their first big win was against Villanova University, a home game on March 3, and they won their match 7-0 against the Wildcats. They had two more 7-0 wins, one against Navy Sports on March 13 and one against UC Riverside on April 6. Their longest win streak of the season was four games in a row, which they achieved twice during their regular season. The first streak consisted of matches won against Virginia Commonwealth University, Navy, Army Sports and Air Force Sports, and the second streak was Dartmouth College, UC Davis, UC Riverside and Cal Poly SLO.
Sakagawa was sidelined during the 2025-26 season with an injury after playing three dual matches, but returned during the season later on and was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete for the third time in his college career, as well as the 2026 Big West Men’s Tennis Player of the Year. He was a key leader of the team, as was rising senior Max Fardanesh, who won 12 of his doubles matches in the 2025-26 season. He also won his third ITA Scholar-Athlete award last season, as well as making the 2026 Spring Quarter Dean’s List.
While the full 2026-27 roster hasn’t been released, the exciting recruitment of Holland Snell, a New Mexico State University transfer, was announced July 18.
The 2026-27 UC Irvine Men’s Tennis season looks promising, between the new recruit and returning players. The team traditionally plays in The Big West Fall Invitation annually, making it likely that the event will be the first that fans will see of the new team.
Milo Cramer is a Sports Staff Writer for the summer 2026 quarter. They can be reached at mncramer@uci.edu.
Edited by Melissa Hernandez and Riley Schnittger
Milo Cramer is a drama major, literary journalism minor at UC Irvine. He's a sports staff writer for New University, and he hopes to pursue writing as a career on the side of acting in live theatre.