March 3, 2010

IRVINE, Calif. - The No. 51 UC Irvine men's tennis team (7-4, 1-0) lost 4-3 to San Diego Wednesday afternoon in non-conference play at Anteater Tennis Stadium.

The ‘Eaters took a 1-0 lead as they won two of the three doubles matches. Senior Zac Tsai (Tarzana/Oaks Christian HS) and sophomore Steven Henderson (Poway HS) downed Nikola Bubnic and Thibaut Visy 8-3 in the No. 2 match. Sophomore Fabian Matthews (Corona del Mar HS) and freshman Nick Northcott (Brisbane, Australia) defeated Abdullah Hashem and Charl Wolmarans 8-6 in No. 3 doubles.

In singles, the Toreros won at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 positions to take a 3-1 lead. Henderson cut the lead to 3-2 as he defeated Hashem 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the No. 6 match. Wolmarans and Tsai battled in the No. 4 match with Wolmarans clinching the team victory for USD with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win. Senior Shimpei Suzuki (Woodbridge HS) closed out the match with a 7-6, 7-6 victory over Thibaut Visy in the No. 3 singles match.

The 'Eaters return to action Friday, March 12^th as they play a pair of matches starting with a non-conference match against Penn at 10:00 a.m. at Anteater Tennis Stadium. The team will then head over to the Racquet Club of Irvine to face UC Riverside at 6:00 p.m. in Big West action.

Results

San Diego 4, No. 51 UC Irvine 3
No. 1	Dean Jackson (USD) def. Sam Gould (UCI)	6-3, 6-2
No. 2	Nikola Bubnic (USD) def. Fabian Matthews (UCI)	6-4, 7-6
No. 3	Shimpei Suzuki (UCI) def. Thibaut Visy (USD)	7-6, 7-6
No. 4	Charl Wolmarans (USD) def. Zac Tsai (UCI)	6-3, 2-6, 7-5
No. 5	Nils Schive (USD) def. Khunpol Issara (UCI)	1-6, 6-4, 6-1
No. 6	Steven Henderson (UCI) def. Abdullah Hashem (USD)	6-3, 4-6, 7-5
	Singles Order of Finish: 1, 2, 5, 6, 4, 3
No. 1	Jackson/Schive (USD) def. Issara/Gould (UCI)	8-6
No. 2	Tsai/Henderson (UCI) def. Bubnic/Visy (USD)	8-3
No. 3	Northcott/Matthews (UCI) def. Hashem/Wolmarans (USD)	8-6
	Doubles Order of Finish: N/A