Men's Tennis Matches 4 & 5

Saturday, January 27 vs Westmont @ 11 am Riverside, CA Saturday, January 27 vs UC San Diego @ 3:30 pm Riverside, CA

Riverside, CA—The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team (1-2) hosts Westmont (0-0) at 11 am and UC San Diego (0-2) at 3:30 pm this Saturday at the SRC Tennis Courts.

The Highlanders last met the Westmont Warriors in April 2017, falling 6-3 (Recap). Division II #12 Westmont recorded 14-8 in 2017, and went 3-3 in away matches. Saturday's match will be Westmont's 2018 season opener.

In last year's match-up with the UC San Diego Tritons, the Highlanders fell in their home opener at the SRC Tennis Courts (5-2) (Recap). The Tritons finished their 2017 season 11-11.

LAST WEEK
The Highlanders notched their first victory of 2018 in their season opener Saturday morning against Hope International's Royals, 7-0 (Recap). UC Riverside narrowly dropped a 3-4 decision to Grand Canyon Saturday afternoon, and fell 2-5 to Nevada on Sunday.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Nabil Abdallah is 3-0 in singles in the #4 position, winning all singles matches so far in 2018. Abdallah is 2-1 in #3 doubles with partner Anderson Ju.

NEW YEAR, NEW RECORD
Head Coach Mattias Johansson returns for his third season with the Highlanders. In his first year, the Highlanders won a Division I program record 13 matches, went 10-5 at home, and saw seniors Julian Ruffin and Sean Robles named All-Conference Honorable Mention. In Johansson's second year at UC Riverside, the Highlanders set a new Division I program record with 14 match wins and went 9-7 at home.

RETURNERS
Juniors Kyle McCann and Anderson Ju lead a team with three returning Sophomores and five new Freshmen. McCann recorded 15 singles victories in his Freshman season—the third-most in the history of the program since joining the Big West in the 2001-2002 season. Last year, McCann charted wins in nine of his 16 doubles matches, partnered with returning Sophomore Max Cohen for all but the first match. 

Anderson Ju tallied 13 wins during his Freshman season—the fifth highest total on the team's Division I charts. Ju recorded another nine singles wins during his Sophomore season last year. 

Gilbert Chung returns for his second season after being named SAAC Male Freshman of the Year for his record 20 singles matches last season against only nine losses, setting the program record for singles victories in a season. Chung was also named to the All-Conference Team and named Honorable Mention for his play in doubles.