No. 13 Notre Dame fell, 4-0, to No. 4 Virginia in the semifinals of its inaugural ACC championships, held in Cary, N.C.
After a first-round bye and a 4-2 victory against No. 16 Clemson on Friday, the fourth-seeded Irish (19-9, 7-4 ACC) fell to the top-seeded Cavaliers (22-2, 11-0 ACC) on Saturday.
Notre Dame found itself in an early hole in both matches, dropping the doubles point in both of its matches. Against the Tigers (20-8, 7-5 ACC), the duos of sophomores Alex Lawson and Quentin Monaghan and senior Matt Dooley and sophomore Eric Schnurrenberger lost their doubles matches. Freshman Josh Hagar and senior Greg Andrews won their match, 8-3. On Saturday afternoon, however, no doubles teams claimed victory.
Hagar, freshman Eddy Covalschi and Schnurrenberger claimed victories in the third, fourth and fifth slots, respectively, securing a Notre Dame victory for the afternoon. Junior Wyatt McCoy’s sixth slot match went unfinished, and Monaghan lost his match in the second slot.
The team had no such luck in singles play against the Cavaliers. Andrews, Covalschi and Schnurrenberger lost in the first, fifth and sixth slots, all in straight sets. Monaghan, Hagar and senior Ryan Bandy saw their matches go unfinished as the 4-0 loss was already guaranteed to the Cavaliers, the eventual tournament champions. Virginia has won the conference championship in nine of the past 10 seasons.
This weekend was Notre Dame’s second match against both opponents with the same results in each. The Irish lost to Virginia, 6-1, and beat Clemson, 5-2, on March 2 and March 21, respectively. Both matches were held on the road.
The Irish now have two weeks to prepare for the NCAA first and second rounds, held May 9-11 on campus sites.
