This past weekend in Austin, Texas, the Notre Dame tennis team scored two victories to continue their hot start to the 2018 season.
As the No. 4 seed, the Irish defeated No. 1 seed Texas and No. 2 seed Minnesota to earn their first bid for the ITA National Team Championship since 2014.
Play began on Saturday between Notre Dame (5-0) and Texas (4-1) at the Texas Tennis Center. The Irish battled the No.8 Longhorns in six singles and three doubles matches.
Notre Dame’s Alex Lebedev continued his undefeated season with a win over Leonardo Telles in a three-set decision.
Irish freshman Richard Ciamarra and junior Grayson Broadus also added to their undefeated starts with key victories.
When the dust had settled, Notre Dame won 4-3 over Texas, enough to secure their highest-ranked win in the past two seasons.
The win brings the Irish to 4-10 all time against the Longhorns.
The victory over Texas propeled Notre Dame into a Sunday match-up against Minnesota (1-2), who had defeated Tennessee the previous afternoon.
The previous afternoon’s back-and-forth duel with Texas gave the Irish the steam to dominate the Golden Gophers in a 4-1 final victory.
The Sunday matches contained stellar performances again by Ciamarra and Broadus, as they improved to 5-0 and 4-0 on their respective seasons.
These individual efforts helped give Notre Dame its best start since 2014, when the team started 6-0.
This kick-off weekend final victory buys the Irish a spot in the 2018 ITA National Team Indoor Championship hosted by the University of Washington from Feb. 16–19.
The last Irish appearance in this event in 2014 led to a consolation bracket win after a first-round loss.
Notre Dame will kick-off ACC play at Boston College this Saturday.
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