Notre Dame opened their fall season on the road Thursday at the Olympia Fields/Illini Invitational in Chicago, Ill.
Five new faces made their freshman debut for the Irish on the first day of the Olympia Fields/Illini Invitational Thursday in Chicago - all of them won.
The Irish opened their season winning six of their first seven singles matches against Miami. Freshmen David Anderson, Tyler Davis, Daniel Stahl, Stephen Havens and Matt Johnson each took home a wing against the Hurricanes.
Anderson played a tough match that went three sets but earned the win with a score of 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 over Miami's Vivek Surbramanian.
Davis earned his first win for the Irish over JC Whitner by a score of 6-4, 6-4, while Stahl wasted little time defeating Barnabas Carrega 6-1, 6-2. Havens also won 6-2, 6-2 over Hector Nieto. Johnson rounded out the five freshmen wins, topping Westin Wendt 6-3, 6-1.
Andrew Roth was forced to retire after an ankle injury at 5-5 in his singles match. Brett Helgeson defeated David Rosenfeld 6-2, 6-1.
The Irish also won six of their 10 doubles matches in the opening round. No. 32-ranked Sheeva Parbhu and Roth split their two matches. The duo dropped their first match 8-5, then bounced back to finish the day with an 8-6 victory.
The freshman duo of Stahl and Johnson finished the first day undefeated, winning 8-4, and 8-3. Both of the other doubles teams split their matches Thursday.
After their great start to the tournament the Irish faced a tough opponent in Alabama Friday.
Helgeson upset No. 44 Billy Mertz in a three-set match. Helgeson dropped the first set 7-5, but bounced back to finish Mertz off 6-3, 7-5 in his second match of the day. In his first match, Helgeson defeated Javier Bes by a score of 6-3, 7-5.
Parbhu split his two matches of the day, losing his first match against Mertz 6-1, 6-0. Parbhu rolled over Bes 6-4, 6-3.
Anderson and Santiago Montoya also split both of their matches. Anderson dropped his first match against Mathieu Thibaudeau 6-4, 6-4. However, he picked up his first win of the day in a three-set victory over Saketh Myeni.
Montoya defeated Westin Wendt of Miami in a tough match 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Montoya preceded to drop the first set of his second match against Dan Buikema 6-0, then came back to win the second set 7-5, and the third in a super tie-breaker 10-8.
The rookies will get their first chance to show off at home when Notre Dame returns this weekend for the Tom Fallon Invitational. The three-day tournament gets started Friday afternoon at the Eck Center.
