No. 14 Notre Dame shut out Purdue Wednesday and improve to 7-1, erasing the memory of a tough defeat to top-ranked Northwestern Sunday.
"We were excited to get all the matches today, our first 7-0 this year," senior Kelcy Tefft said. "Usually there is a girl or two that doesn't perform very well that day, or a girl or two on the other team who plays very well that day."
The Irish put pressure on Purdue from the start, as freshmen Shannon Matthews and junior Colleen Rielley won 8-5 and junior Cosmina Ciobanu and senior Katie Potts won 8-4. The top-ranked duo of Tefft and freshmen Kristy Frilling then swept the doubles point with an 8-7 victory.
Despite the fact that all the doubles matches ended in Irish victories, the team was far from satisfied.
"All of our doubles teams didn't play as well as we should have," Tefft said. "All of our matches were closer than we would have liked them to be."
Tefft said the key to the dominating performance was forgetting Sunday's loss to Northwestern in the National Indoor Semifinals.
"I think we just let that go," Tefft said. "All of the matches there show where we stood, both in singles and doubles, and what we needed to do. Today, we came out and took care of business."
At the onset of singles play, Notre Dame separated itself from the team that lost to Northwestern, and certainly from the Purdue squad it faced. Matthews led the effort, earning a victory 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5 singles. Frilling followed her lead, prevailing 6-1, 6-1, and Tefft continued the trend, winning 6-1, 6-0.
Potts defeated her opponent in her first singles match of the season, 6-1, 6-2. Sophomore Kristin Rafael provided the Irish with a 6-0 lead by winning 7-5, 6-2, and finally, in the only match that went to three sets, Ciobanu prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
Notre Dame will travel to Utah to face both Brigham Young and Utah over the weekend.
