Traveling to Irvine each year is always one of the highlights for the team. The endless food options and the peaceful surroundings are a favorite amongst players. Given the lack of tournaments this year, this was also a great warm-up event for the upcoming Sectionals. 

UCSD started off the day strong, with our Mixed Doubles pairing of Jamie Wei and Allyson Chen racing to a 6-1 win over UCI's Mixed pair. The Singles was a tight affair, and Raj Tantuwaya was unfortunate to be on the wrong side of a 6-5(5-3) loss after a very long and grueling match. 

One of the highlights of the day came from our Men's Doubles pairing of Abhishek Anish and Ryo Kojima, who have been exceptional this year, racking up a 6-2 win over UCLA's strong pairing. It was an encouraging result against the reigning National champions and boosted the morale of our team. On the Women's Doubles side, Serena Ko and Tiffany Hyunh put in a solid and assured display against UCI to secure a 6-2 win. 

Our first Women's Singles was against UCI, with Daniela Gama playing in her first competition since joining the team. Always a fun and uplifting person off the court, Dany brings a focused intensity on the court. She battled well and had a lengthy match against a very composed UCI player, and although she did not win that match, it was a very positive start and will certainly be a point of progress for Dany heading into Sectionals. 

In the second Men's Singles match against UCLA, our Singles player, Ethan Liu, found himself drawn against a very tough opponent, with the match ending 1-6. It was a rare blip in an otherwise good year for Ethan in his first year on our team. The result certainly spurred him on to recover and train efficiently before Sectionals. In the second Mixed Doubles match against UCLA, Jamie and Allyson fought their way back from a 3-5 deficit to send the match to a tiebreak at 5-5. Although the tiebreak did not go our way, the match lived up to the expectations of being one of the closely contested of the day and was encouraging for Jamie and Allyson in their first time paired with each other. 

In the Women's Singles against UCLA, team veteran Sisi Leong took the court against a very experienced and strong opponent. Although the score went 2-6, Sisi was encouraged by her display and highlighted strong improvement technically and mentally. 

Overall, the team fared well against two of the top schools in our section. And most importantly it was a great day for tennis, with everyone just excited to be back out there competing!