After five days of competition, the Notre Dame Women's Tennis team earned the ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Championship with a victory from the Irish duo of senior Kelcy Tefft and freshman Kristy Frilling.
After securing a spot in Monday's finals with an 8-4 victory over Cami Hubbs and Kristina Keesey of Ohio State on Sunday, Tefft and Frilling matched up against the DePaul pair of Dunja Antunovic and Kristin Gambell and overpowered the Blue Devils with an 8-5 victory to earn the title. Tefft and Frilling improved to 10-0 on the season with the win.
The victory was Tefft's third consecutive Midwest regional doubles title. Her previous two titles came with her former partner Brook Buck who graduated in May 2008.
Tefft also earned a spot in the finals of the singles main draw. After advancing to the semifinals with a straight sets 6-2, 6-4 victory over Irish freshman Kristen Rafael in the quarterfinals, Tefft defeated DePaul's Antunovic for the second time with a 6-2, 6-1 straight sets win. Tefft, who is ranked No. 43 nationally amongst singles players, will face No. 30 Samantha Murray of Northwestern in the final match this afternoon.
Tefft and Rafael were two of four Irish players who advanced to the round of eight in singles play. Frilling advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2 straight sets win over Northwestern's Elena Chernayakova. However, she was eliminated from the tournament when she fell to Murray 0-6, 3-6 in straight sets coming up one game shy of facing her doubles partner in the finals.
Irish junior Kali Krisik rounded out Notre Dame's singles action with a 4-6, 2-6 loss to Antunovic. Krisik had earned her spot in the round of eight with an upset over Northwestern's No. 36 ranked Lauren Lui. After dropping the first set 6-0, she rallied to win the next two sets 7-5, 6-4.
In total, seven Irish players made it to the round of sixteen in the singles main draw. Juniors Colleen Rielley and Cosmina Ciobanu and freshman Shannon Matthews were defeated in the round of sixteen on Sunday. Rielley's match was called because of an injury, giving Rafael the default victory.
The tournament wraps up today with Tefft's singles final.
