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Friday, March 29, 2024
The Observer

Irish score victories against Texas, Minnesota

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.

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Michelle Mehelas | The Observer
Junior Grayson Broadus hits a shot in the Eck Tennis Pavilion on Jan. 21 against the University of Kentucky.


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.