CHENEY, Wash. -- The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team travels to California next week to battle San Diego State (Mar. 27) and UC Irvine (Mar. 29) in two non-conference matches. First serves are set for 2 p.m. and 11 a.m. Pacific time, respectively. The squad sits at a 6-7 mark in the regular season and 2-4 in conference. 

"The guys are looking forward to the break and some great tennis," said head coach Steve Clark. "We still need to get some guys healed up for conference play when we return so hopefully this will be a good time to recoup while others get the chance to be the next man up."

The Aztecs are 2-12 overall in the regular season and 1-0 in the Mountain West Conference coming off a losing weekend where they fell to Arizona (4-0) and Rice (4-3). This is the first time Eastern has played San Diego State in program history.

UC Irvine's 11-man roster is 10-7 overall and have yet to start Big West Conference play. The Anteaters played three matches last weekend (Mar. 15-16) where they faced Gonzaga (6-1), Yale (4-1) and Liberty University (4-1) and won every match. The Eagles last played UC Irvine in 2015 and lost 1-6. 

The Eagles have had two weeks to prepare after facing Northern Arizona (Mar. 10) and Portland State (Mar. 11). After putting up a tough fight, Eastern lost to both NAU (6-1) and PSU (4-3). Senior Scott Paz has won Big Sky Player of the Week for the Eagles three times this season so far, the most any Eastern player has tabbed in the history of men's tennis at EWU. Junior Jeremy Field also earned Player of the Week after going undefeated against NAU and PSU despite the team losses. 

Following next week, the squad hosts Southern Utah (Apr. 13), Idaho State (Apr. 14), and Idaho (Apr. 18) for their last home matches of the season. For more information on Eastern Washington's men's tennis team, follow @EWUAthletics on Twitter and Instagram and like EWU Men's Tennis on Facebook.