After suffering their first loss of the season to No. 11 Vanderbilt on Wednesday, No. 2 Notre Dame returns back home to face Eastern Michigan today at the Eck Tennis Pavilion at 2:30 pm.
The loss ended the teams 16 match winning streak.
"We are ready to rebound from the loss [against Vanderbilt] and have a great match," senior Kelly Nelson said. "We have been very successful this season so far, and we are motivated to finish out strong."
In their last match against the Commodores, the Irish began the match by sweeping the doubles point but failed to win three of the six singles matches to claim the win.
The two wins in singles came from No. 5 Kiki Stastny and No. 6 Katie Potts who has only lost once in dual matches this season.
"The whole team fought hard in the last match," Potts said. "We've also had a great season, so now we just need to play great tennis in the upcoming matches."
Eastern Michigan heads into the contest with an impressive 6-1 win over Ball State last Saturday. The Eagles now stand at 6-6 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference.
In the match, Eastern Michigan claimed the doubles point with wins from their Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. Playing at No. 2 for the Eagles was the duo of Catherina Bestahorn and Elizabeth Syrova and at No. 3 was Falvia Micati and Laura Fernandez.
Leading the team in singles is Syrova at No. 1 and Aditi Krishnan at No. 2.
"Although [Eastern Michigan] isn't ranked as high as us, we never want to underestimate any of our opponents," Potts said. "We are expecting great matches from them."
The Irish feature two highly ranked doubles teams. Leading the team is the No. 3 duo of juniors Christian and Catrina Thompson at No. 1. The Thompson's are coming off a 9-7 win over Vanderbilt's Amanda Fish and Amanda Taylor. Following the Thompson's is the No. 29 pairing of sophomore Brook Buck and freshman Kelcy Tefft. The third Irish team is the twosome of seniors Kiki Stastny and Lauren Connelly.
In singles, No. 30 Catrina Thompson leads the team at No. 1. Thompson is followed by No. 74 Christian Thompson at No. 2.
"We are really looking forward to playing at home after having several matches away," Nelson said. "Getting a win against Eastern Michigan will be a great way to start [the upcoming series of matches on the road]."
