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Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Notre Dame set to travel to All-American Championships

Notre Dame will travel to Pacific Palisades, California this weekend to participate in their second invitational of the season. The Irish will square off against some of the top tennis programs in the country in the Riviera Women’s All-American Championship — a competition Irish head coach Alison Silverio described as “the most prestigious women’s tennis championship in the fall season”.

The championship, located outside Los Angeles, will last a full week from Sept. 29 until Oct. 6. The event, now in its 34th year, will host a variety of top-tier teams in two separate tournament events; a pre-qualifying round, and a qualifying round and main draw tournament. The pre-qualifying round will be held at Pepperdine University, and will take place earlier in the week. However, the more prestigious qualifying contest and subsequent main draw will be held Riviera Tennis Club and will begin on Oct. 3.

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Observer File Photo
Irish senior Rachel Chong (left) and junior Bess Waldram compete in doubles during Notre Dame’s 6-1 loss to North Carolina on April 6.


Irish doubles partners sophomore Cameron Corse and junior Zoe Spence received good news concerning their place at the ITA Championship earlier this week. The doubles team was initially scheduled to compete in the pre-qualifying matches only, but on Monday received word that they would in fact be competing in the qualifying matches — an update Silverio said she is excited about.

“[Corse and Spence] now qualify for qualifying event, so that will start on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week … its very good news, exciting for our program, it’s the most prestigious individual event in the fall for tennis," Silverio said.

The upgrade from the pre-qualifying matches to the qualifying matches is a significant step for the doubles pair and for the Notre Dame program, and provides an opportunity for the Irish to prove themselves and their new program on a big stage.

The Irish squad still hasn’t yet seen much action this season. At their first meet, many of Notre Dame’s matches were cancelled or played in a limited fashion due to inclement weather, with rainstorms preventing many matches from being played.

“Unfortunately, the only time we got to play outside was on Thursday — we thought it was most important to get in the singles,” Silverio explained.

Due to the bad weather many of the matches were left unplayed, especially the doubles matches, which Notre Dame only played in for one day.

Irish individuals will be competing to qualify for the Women’s All-American National Title at this Invitational, and the All-American Championship also provides an opportunity to place for a spot in the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, which occur later in the fall season in early November.