College Roundup: UC Irvine men’s tennis competes at ITA Southwest Regionals

The UC Irvine men’s tennis team won six singles and two doubles matches Thursday on the first day of the ITA Southwest Regional Championships at Pepperdine.

Freshman Ali Amiri and sophomore Aaron Bailey opened the tournament with their fourth straight doubles victory, outlasting a team from Hawaii 8-7 (8-6). They then lost 8-6 to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Antoine Noel and Gary Vardanyan.

UCI senior Bruce Man-Son-Hing and junior Mateusz Smolicki beat Leo Andreolli and Maxim Kirsch of Grand Canyon 8-1 in the first round. They then lost 8-6 in the second round to the University of San Diego’s Joel Gamerov and Sacchitt Sharrma.

Freshman Matthew Sah, senior Daniel Gealer, junior Jeremy Merville, sophomore Mike Mkrtchian, Bailey and Amiri each won in singles in the first round. They were all knocked out of the main draw in the round of 64.

The tournament continues Friday.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

ITA Southwest Regional Championships: UC Irvine lost six first-round singles matches and three first-round doubles matches Thursday at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

Jessica Tsukiji came the closest to winning for the Anteaters, but she lost 6-3, 6-4 to Tiffany Lagarde of UC Santa Barbara.

UCI will compete in the tournament’s back draw on Friday.

::

Support our sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.

For more sports stories, visit latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/sports or follow us on Twitter @DailyPilotSport.