Hosting its toughest opponent this season, No. 27 Notre Dame fell to No. 3 USC, 6-1. The Irish (10-7) forced four three-set singles matches against a Trojans' lineup filled with nationally ranked players, but only Irish junior Ryan Bandy won his match at No. 6 singles against Trjoans sophomore Jonny Wang, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
"We competed hard with them," Bandy said. "Obviously, we didn't get the win today but we went out there and had three or four matches in singles that we were close to winning.
"We got one singles point on the board, which is something we are a little proud of. We just competed a lot better in singles and really played with a lot of heart out there."
The Irish were unable to match the Trojans' firepower in the doubles lineup and dropped the doubles point to begin the night. After losing matches at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, 8-4 and 8-6, respectively, Notre Dame rebounded in the singles and took five total sets from USC (16-2).
"I think we started off a little slow in the doubles," Bandy said. "I mean we were obviously excited about the challenge but we really came out flat in doubles. They just kind of walked over us in doubles.
"In the break between doubles and singles, we knew we needed to step it up and change up the pace and really come out strong in singles with a lot of energy."
Besides Bandy's victory at No. 6 singles, the Irish gave USC its toughest matches at No. 1 and No. 4 singles. Playing against the second-ranked singles player in the nation, Irish junior Greg Andrews recovered from losing the first set, 6-7, to take a hard-fought second set, 6-3. But the junior ultimately lost to the third-set tiebreaker to Trojans junior Emilio Gomez at No. 1 singles.
