THIS WEEK...
MATCH 4: UC Davis (1-2) at Loyola Marymount (0-1)
Friday, Jan. 23, 2014
2:00 p.m.
Los Angeles, Calif. - LMU Tennis Complex
Match Coverage: Live Stats

MATCH 5: UC Davis (1-2) vs. Grand Canyon (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 24, 2014
11:00 a.m.
Los Angeles, Calif. - LMU Tennis Complex
Match Coverage: Live Stats

FIRST SERVE: After facing nationally ranked opposition in two of its first three matches to kick-off the spring, the UC Davis men's tennis team (1-2 overall) continues its four-match road swing with a pair of contests in Southern California this weekend. The Aggies travel to Los Angeles for a dual with Loyola Marymount on Friday (Jan. 23) at 2 p.m., before taking on Grand Canyon on Saturday (Jan. 24) at 11 a.m. Both matches will be played at the LMU Tennis Complex.

"WATCH" IT LIVE: Can't make the trip to LMU this weekend? Aggie fans can follow all the action "live" via live scoring on LMULions.com. Links will be made available on the UC Davis men's tennis schedule page at UCDavisAggies.com, as well.

IN THE RANKINGS: UC Davis, as well as Loyola Marymount and Grand Canyon, enter the weekend unranked in the latest ITA poll released on Jan. 20. As for other schools on the Aggies' spring schedule: California remained at No. 15 in the nation, Stanford dropped one spot to No. 31, Santa Clara is No. 57, Nevada is tied for No. 66, and Rice entered the ranking at No. 75.

ABOUT THE LIONS: Loyola Marymount enters Friday's match with an 0-1 record after falling in its season opener at No. 44 Oregon, 6-1... Freshman Alex Bourgeois posted the Lions only point against the Ducks with a three-set, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 10-6, win at No. 6 against Oregon's Cormac Clissold... The LMU duo of Errol Smith and Charles Boyce also posted a doubles victory, 6-3, at the No. 2 spot in the lineup... The Lions return six players off of last season's squad that finished 14-10 overall and 4-5 in the West Coast Conference, including three of their top four in the lineup... Junior Cristobal Rivera led LMU with 16 singles wins last season, playing mainly at the No. 4 spot (9-2) in the lineup... Senior Todd Volmari made up half of the Lions' top doubles team last year with graduated teammate Sebastian Bustamante, finishing 13-5 overall in duals.

ABOUT THE ANTELOPES: Grand Canyon will officially open its spring season against the Aggies on Saturday before facing off against the host Lions on Sunday... The Antelopes return five letter winners off of last season's squad, but lost their top two players from last year's lineup in No. 1 Nicolas Moulin (9-10) and No. 2 Ahmad Saleem (4-12)... Sophomore Adrian Legarreta, who posted a 10-6 mark at No. 3, and junior Felix Schueller, who split time at three spots in the lineup, but posted a 7-3 mark at the No. 4 position, both return after winning 12 matches apiece last spring.

SERIES NOTES: Loyola Marymount leads the all-time series with UC Davis by a 4-2 count dating back to the 1996-97 season, including a 3-1 mark since the Aggies made the jump to Division I in 2007-08... Friday marks the second meeting in Los Angeles between the schools, with UC Davis edging LMU, 4-3, on April 19, 2013, in the only other Southern California contest... The Lions posted a 4-2 win over the Aggies last season in Sacramento after rains forced the match to nearby indoor courts... Saturday's meeting with Grand Canyon will be the first between the two schools in men's tennis.

WADE SHARES FIRST BIG WEST WEEKLY HONOR OF 2015: A stellar start to the spring season has earned UC Davis sophomore James Wade a share of Big West Conference Player of the Week honors, the league office announced on Jan. 21. It is the second career weekly honor for the San Marino, California, native after earning his first on Feb. 19 of last season. He shares this week's honor with UC Irvine's Sebastian Heim. For a complete recap of Wade's award-winning week, read the complete release at: http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/012115aaa.html.

LAST TIME OUT: Battling their second nationally ranked opponent in a week, the Aggies fell to No. 15 California, 4-0, in Berkeley on Jan. 19 to open a four-match road trip. Regional rivals who had seen each other plenty during the fall season (UC Davis singles players were 5-7 against their counterparts from Cal), the Golden Bears jumped out early by sweeping doubles play to go up 1-0. California then took three of the six singles matches in straight sets to end the match as the remaining three contests went unfinished -- including a pair of battles for the Aggies against nationally ranked foes at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.

HE... COULD... GO... ALL... THE... WAY: The Aggies have continued a rather successful trend that saw them post a 44-28 (.611) record in three-set singles contests last season, posting a 21-15 (.583) record in such matches to start the 2014-15 campaign. Sophomore James Wade has led the way, thus far, with a perfect 7-0 mark in three-set contests, while classmate Bryce McKelvie right behind him with four wins in six chances. Last season, junior Brett Bacharach led all UC Davis players with 14 trips to a decisive third set, finishing with a team-high nine victories.

2014-15 Aggies in Three Sets:
Alec Adamson: 1-3 (.250)
Brett Bacharach: 3-1 (.750)
Tommy Lam: 1-3 (.250)
Adam Levie: 0-2 (.000)
Everett Maltby: 1-2 (.333)
Bryce McKelvie: 4-2 (.667)
Jesse Ross: 2-2 (.500)
James Wade: 7-0 (1.000)
Eli Whittle: 2-0 (1.000)

ROAD WEARY: With five of its first six duals away from the friendly confines of the Marya Welch Tennis Center, UC Davis will feel like its living out of a suitcase for the first month of the regular season. However, it does give the Aggies plenty of chances to improve on last season's 1-7 mark away from home, including trying to end a seven-match losing streak in true road contests. UC Davis hasn't won a road match since Feb. 16, 2014, when the Aggies posted a 6-1 victory at Casueway rival Sacramento State.

AGGIES AT-A-GLANCE: Fresh off its most successful Division I season in 2013-14, UC Davis returns five letter winners, four regular singles starters, and two of its top doubles teams, from a lineup that helped the Aggies post a 14-11 dual match record last spring, including a quartet of 20-game winners in junior Brett Bacharach (25-11) and sophomores James Wade (28-8), Alec Adamson (22-11), and Bryce McKelvie (20-6). UC Davis earned six spots on the Big West's postseason honor roll as Adamson (first team), Wade (first team), and Kyle Miller (second team), were awarded spots on the singles teams, while Adamson and Adam Levie (first team) and Bacharach and Adam Luba (second team) earned doubles laurels. Four new faces dot the UC Davis roster for 2014-15, as highly-touted freshmen Everett Maltby and Tommy Lam join Division I transfers Jesse Ross (Santa Clara) and Eli Whittle (Brown University).

HEAD COACH Eric Steidlmayer: Entering his third season at the helm of the Aggies, Eric Steidlmayer has marshaled a steady improvement in the win column for the Aggies over the last two seasons, moving up from a 5-15 record in 2011-12 to an 8-13 mark in his first year and last year's 14-11 campaign. Steidlmayer, who was an assistant coach at UC Davis for two seasons from 1997-98 while receiving his master's degree in economics, joined the Aggies in July of 2012 after posting a 182-108 overall record in 14 years as a head coach at UC San Diego, coaching five All-America selections and leading the Tritons to 12 consecutive NCAA Division II postseason appearances, including a national semifinal appearance in 2007 and a 20-0 record during the 2011 regular season.

ADJUST YOUR CALENDARS: For Aggie fans in the Bay Area looking to catch the UC Davis men's tennis team in action at Santa Clara, please note that the start time for the match against the Broncos on Jan. 31 has been adjusted to Noon rather than the originally scheduled 10 a.m. start.

LESS IS MORE: It may only be a two-man class, but Head Coach Eric Steidlmayer and Assistant Coach Michael Meyer were rewarded with the announcement that UC Davis had brought in one of the top mid-major recruiting classes in the nation over the summer according to the website TennisRecruiting.net. Freshmen Everett Maltby and international standout Tommy Lam garnered the Aggies the No. 17 class in the country -- the second-highest among Big West Conference schools (UC Santa Barbra at No. 15) -- and gave UC Davis its second top-20 class according to the website under Steidlmayer's direction (No. 15 in 2013). Maltby was a four-star recruit by the website, ranked as high as No. 15 in the state of California, No. 16 in the region, and No. 85 nationally, while Hong Kong native Lam was ranked as high as No. 17 in the country in 2012 and was a member of the Hong Kong Boys 16-and-under team that placed ninth at the Junior Davis Cup that year.

"FALL" GUYS: UC Davis capped off the fall portion of its 2014-15 campaign with a number of standout performances, including eight individual singles and doubles titles, and deep bracket runs by the tandem of Alec Adamson and Adam Levie against high-level competition at a pair of prestigious tournaments. Late additions to the lineup, Adamson and Levie advanced all the way to the main draw championship at the annual "Battle in the Bay" Classic, defeating a pair of Pac-12 teams before falling to the USC duo of Nick Crystal and Connor Farren, edged 8-6 in the final. The Aggie duo then duplicated their run of a season ago at the ITA Northwest Regionals, advancing to the main draw semifinals of the event before falling to San Francisco's Bernardo Saraiva and Nils Skajaa, 7-6, 4-6, 9-11. Three Aggies finished with double-digit wins during the fall, led by freshman Everett Maltby, who posted an 11-3 mark along with singles and doubles titles at the UCSB Classic. Sophomore Bryce McKelvie finished 10-3, claiming titles at the Aggie Invitational, UCSB Classic (doubles), and Saint Mary's Fall Classic, while sophomore James Wade ended 10-5 with titles at the Aggie Invitational and UCSB Classic.

DOUBLES TROUBLE... AGAIN: Building off of last season's success that saw the pair post a 22-11 mark in doubles play, Alec Adamson and Adam Levie are at it again, winning six of their eight doubles contests together during this past fall season -- including three victories over Pac-12 opponents. Dating back to the 1996-97 season, the tandem's performance last season was one of the best as their 22 victories rank second on the single-season list, trailing only the 24 wins posted by Paul Dilloway and Greg Lee in 2003 (24-6 overall), and the duo stands fourth on the career list as a team behind the record of 51 wins from 2000-03 held by the team of Lee and Yaro Vinogradsky. Individually, Levie's 36 career doubles wins ranks No. 10 on the Aggies' all-time list dating back to the 1996-97 season, while standing eighth on the career dual match list (21 wins) during that same span.

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT COMBINATIONS: Head Coach Eric Steidlmayer spent the fall tinkering with his doubles lineups, looking for the right fits with his squad for the upcoming spring schedule. The Aggies used 16 different doubles combinations during the fall campaign, posting a combined 25-16 (.610) record over five different events.

"WADE"-ING INTO THE WINNING END: After a 10-5 record during the fall, it doesn't look like James Wade is going through a sophomore slump just a season after a stellar Division I debut. Wade finished 28-8 overall and 19-4 in dual match play -- both standing as the most wins in each category dating back to the 1996-97 season. Wade shaded Greg Lee's overall mark of 26-5 and 15-3 dual match record during the latter's 2003 All-America season when he finished ranked No. 12 in singles and No. 8 in doubles.

NO SINGLING THEM OUT: The Aggies finished the fall with a combined 64-39 (.621) record in singles play -- four wins better than last year's fall mark of 60-46 (.566) -- as seven of the nine Aggies finished with winning records. Three Aggies (Everett Maltby, Bryce McKelvie, and James Wade) finished with double-digit wins, while last year's No. 1 player Alec Adamson ended the fall on a high note with four consecutive wins to share the Flight A singles crown with teammate McKelvie at a weather-shortened Saint Mary's Fall Classic.