Men’s tennis
The UC Davis men’s tennis team is the No. 5 seed at this week’s Big West Conference Tournament. The Aggies will face No. 4 UC Santa Barbara at 3 p.m. in Friday’s first round action at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif.
All six Big West teams will take part in the championship. Pacific is the top seed followed by UC Irvine, Cal Poly, UCSB, UC Davis and UC Riverside. Cal Poly and UC Riverside will square off in Friday’s other opening round match.
UC Davis faced UCSB in mid-February when the Gauchos won 5-2 at the Marya Welch Tennis Center. Nick Lopez and Nic Amaroli each picked up wins in the match. UCSB was ranked No. 58 at the time. The Gauchos currently hold a No. 79 ranking.
The winner of the UC Davis-UCSB match will face Pacific in Saturday’s semifinals. The championship concludes Sunday with the winner receiving the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Women’s tennis
UC Davis‘ women’s tennis team is gearing up for this week’s Big West Tournament. The Aggies are the No. 7 seed at this year’s championship and will face No. 2 UC Irvine Friday at 9 a.m. The tournament, like the men’s championship, is taking place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
All nine Big West teams will take part in the championship, which begins today with No. 8 UC Riverside taking on No. 9 Cal State Fullerton. Long Beach State is the top seed, followed by UC Irvine, Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Pacific and UCSB. UC Irvine is currently ranked No. 56 nationally.
UC Davis will be looking to avenge an earlier 7-0 loss at UC Irvine on Feb. 14. Overall, the Aggies finished the regular season with six wins in their final 10 matches. Two of the losses came against nationally-ranked teams. Four Aggies will bring in resumes that include 20 or more combined singles and doubles wins on the year. They include Dahra Zamudio, who leads the team with 26 victories. Desiree Stone, Jenna Kappel and Herzyl Legaspi have also topped 20 wins. Stone has won her past three matches and four of her last five.
The winner of the UC Davis-UC Irvine match will face either Cal Poly or UCSB in Saturday’s semifinals. The championship concludes Sunday with the winner receiving the conference’s NCAA Tournament automatic bid.
Aggie Digest is compiled by the California Aggie sports staff with briefs from the UC Davis athletics website, ucdavisaggies.com.
