Last week the No. 17 Irish lost two tough matches to South Florida and Duke before clenching a final victory against Tennessee in Tampa, Fla., bringing their record to 8-6.
The week began with a difficult matchup against USF, where the Irish lost 6-2. Freshmen doubles pair Jennifer Kellner, Big East player of the week, and Julie Sabacinski secured the first point. Juniors Kristy Frilling and Shannon Mathews, No. 23, brought their record to 11-3 as they took down No. 42 pair junior Janette Bejikova and freshman Loreto Alonso Martinez.
The Irish fell short in singles play, with Kellner securing the only point for the Irish and her tenth consecutive singles victory.
Frilling sat out the singles play against USF and Duke due to a wrist injury.
"I've had tendonitis in my wrist for the past month," Frilling said. "It's been tough trying to work out the best times to rest, and the best times to play in order for it to heal."
The Irish fell in all of their singles matches save for Kellner, who defeated No. 76 Bejikova.
The Irish then faced off against Duke, losing 7-0. Kellner and Mathews played their first match as doubles partners, earning the only doubles point against senior Nadine Fahoum and freshman Hanna Mar. No. 38 Mathews fell in singles to No. 50 Fahoum in three sets.
To round off the week, the Irish snatched a victory against No. 18 Tennessee.
Frilling was back in the action against Tennessee, reuniting with Mathews to defeat junior Natalie Pluskota and freshman Millie Nichols, the No. 59 Volunteers duo. Doubles pair sophomore Chrissie McGaffigan and senior Kristen Rafael took the second doubles point against seniors Rosalia Alda and Maria Sorbello.
"The Tennessee match was especially tough because we just came off two losses and Tennessee is ranked around us, so we knew getting a win there was going to be very important," Frilling said.
Frilling easily defeated No. 42 junior Natalie Pluskota in singles. Mathews secured a win as well, overcoming Alda.
"The most you can do is learn from your matches and work on improving on that," Frilling said. "All the girls did a great job of doing that."
The Irish are back in action Thursday at Georgia Tech.
