INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—The University of Hawaii men's tennis team fell in the first round of the 2019 Big West Conference Tournament on Thursday morning at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. No. 6-seed Hawai'i fell 4-1 to the No. 3-seed UC Irvine. 
 
The Anteaters captured what proved to be a crucial point taking two of the doubles matches on Courts No. 2 and 3. On the No. 2 court, UCI's Luis Lopez and Bruce Man-Son-Hing pulled away from UH's Blaz Seric and Simao Telo Alves, 6-1. The No. 3 duo of Mason Hansen and Sasha Krasnov held off UH's Chia-Hua Lu and Asad Siyyid by a break, 6-4 to take a 1-0 lead.
 
In singles, the Anteaters jumped out to a 3-0 lead with No. 6 Aaron Bailey defeating UH's Siyyid in straight-sets, 6-2, 6-2 and Daniel Gealer taking down UH's Alves, 6-3, 6-3 on the No. 4 court. Hawai'i however would not go down easy. Hawai'i's No. 1 Andre Ilagan came back after dropping the second set to defeat Krasnov in three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. But UCI then clinched the match as Mateus Smolicki came back to edge out Seric in a third set tiebreaker, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1).
 
The Rainbow Warriors conclude their season with a 7-13 overall record. It is the most wins for the 'Bows since the team went 8-12 overall. Rookie Ilagan finished his first season at Hawai'i with a team-high 12-8 dual match record.