Facing William & Mary for the second time this year, No. 27 Notre Dame defeated the Tribe, 6-1, on Saturday in Williamsburg, Va.
The Irish (11-7) took two of three doubles matches to secure the doubles point and won five of six singles matches to take down William & Mary (8-13). Although the event was played in a different format Saturday, Notre Dame had previously derailed the Tribe in November at the Tribe Invitational, held in Williamsburg, Va.
"I think we did a good job of adjusting to the surface there," Irish coach Bobby Bayliss said. "We were forced to play indoors as it was a little chilly. Their courts are rubberized so we made a nice adjustment. For the most part, everybody was in control of their matches."
Entering Saturday's match, Notre Dame had lost six of its last nine doubles points. The team reversed that trend, taking two matches at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, 8-5 and 8-6, respectively.
The Irish continued their strong play in the singles lineup, winning all the matches at No. 1 through No. 5 singles. Irish junior Greg Andrews first defeated Tribe senior Anton Andersson 6-2, 6-0, at No. 1 singles. Irish senior Michael Moore finished his match next, winning at No. 5 singles by the same margin.
"I was particularly impressed with Michael Moore," Bayliss said. "When [junior Ryan Bandy and sophomore Wyatt McCoy] have had to miss [due to injuries], Michael has stepped in and really caught fire and had some pretty significant wins."
Irish senior Blas Moros and freshman Quentin Monaghan both won their matches in two sets, losing only five and three total games, respectively.
"The top three guys really took care of business," Bayliss said. "We won all three of those matches pretty quickly as with Michael's. So we were ahead 5-0 before we had the two matches that had to finish. The drama was gone fairly quickly, but I was happy to see the adjustments we made on all the courts."
Although Irish junior Billy Pecor dropped the first set at No. 4 singles, 4-6, he fought back to win the second set, 7-5, and the third-set super tiebreaker, 10-7. Irish freshman Alex Lawson also started slowly, but he was unable to win the third-set super tiebreaker and ultimately lost his match.
With the victory, Notre Dame improved to 5-2 in its last seven matches. Five regular season matches remain on the Irish schedule before the team hosts the Big East championships at the Eck Pavilion.
"I think the rest of the way the goals are to get a little cooperation from Mother Nature and become readjusted to outdoor play and tie up the loose ends in our résumé, which includes more reliable doubles," Bayliss said.
The Irish will play Ball State on April 1 in Muncie, Ind.
Contact Peter Steiner at psteiner@nd.edu
