INDIAN WELLS, Calif.— The 6^th seeded UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team (16-18, 0-5) will head out to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden this Thursday to face 3^rd seeded UC Davis (8-17, 3-3) in the first round of the 2018 Big West Conference Championship. UCR and UCD faced each other just this past Saturday in Davis, CA as the Aggies took the match 6-1.

The Highlanders and the Aggies are set to face off again at 9:00 AM this Thursday and the winner will take on 2^nd seeded Cal Poly Friday at 3:00 PM.

TOURNAMENT BRACKET

2017 BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP
The #6 Highlanders took a first round exit in last year's tournament to the #3 Cal Poly Mustangs 4-0. 

RECORD BROKEN
On April 11th UCR broke the all-time single season win record defeating Hope International 7-0 to earn the program's 15th dual match victory. This breaks the previous record of 14 that was set last season. Since then, the Highlanders have added to their new record and now have 16 wins.

FRESHMAN PHENOM
Freshman Vignesh Subramanyan has already had positive impact on the team in just his first year as a Highlander. Subramanyan is tied for most singles wins on the team boasting a 22-7 record and has been a lock on court six winning 17 out of 22 matches. 

McCANN's THE MAN
Late March, junior Kyle McCann collected his second career Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week honor following a productive east coast road trip. UCR has now taken the weekly honors three times this season.

McCann helped the Highlanders to a 5-1 record on the trip that resulted in wins over North Carolina A&T, Methodist, Hampton, Norfolk State and North Carolina Central.

Playing between No. 2 and No. 3 singles, McCann reeled off six straight singles victories, including four in three sets.  He had a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Norfolk State's Flavian Fernandez in a 4-3 team triumph.

WIth partner Filip Engstrom at No. 2 doubles, McCann registered a 5-1 record.  They eked out a 7-6 (4) win over North Carolina Central's Gabriel Cucalon and Sebastian Bromley.

PAWEL CAN BALL
After leading the team to a 3-0 mark in early March, freshman Pawel Jankowiak was named Big West Player of the Week for the first time in his career. 

Jankowiak notched six victories in singles and doubles playing court one in every match for the Highlanders.

The freshman defeated his first two opponents in straight sets topping Youngstown State's Joao Garretto (6-3, 6-3) and Boston University's Satyajit Simhad (6-1, 6-1).  He then overcame a first set deficit to upend Villanova's Stefan Suarez by scores of 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 to secure his spot as the No. 1 player in UCR's singles lineup.

With doubles partner, Vignesh Subramanyan, Jankowiak also went 3-0 at No. 1 doubles.  The freshman duo toppled Villanova's Thomas Dodson and Tyler Roth, 6-2.

RAQUETS? OR BROOMS?
Seven of UC Riverside's wins this season have been perfect sweeps in which the team won the doubles point and all six singles matches. Six of UCR's sweeps were 7-0 wins over Hope International, Westmont, Biola, Concordia Irvine, Hampton, and Arizona Christian. The Highlanders also added a 9-0 win over Methodist.

NABIL IS REAL
Nabil Abdallah was named Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for his play against Westmont and UC San Diego on Saturday, January 27. The sophomore is currently 22-12 in singles play, which is tied for the most singles wins on the team, and holds a 13-15 doubles record with partner Anderson Ju, which ranks 2nd.

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.