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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Observer

Notre Dame falls to BC, Syracuse at home

Fresh off a winning weekend, the luck of the Irish shifted this weekend as the Notre Dame women’s tennis team (7-5, 2-3 ACC) closed out a double-header at home with one loss to Boston College (2-2, 1-2 ACC) on Friday, 4-3, and another 4-3 loss to Syracuse (3-3, 1-1 ACC) on Sunday at noon.

The Irish started the weekend out strong with a straight-set win (6-2, 6-2) from senior Cameron Corse over Eagles senior Yufei Long in the No. 1 slot. Boston College answered with a straight-set win from senior Kylie Wilcox (6-2, 6-3) over Notre Dame senior Ally Bojczuk.

The Irish won another two singles matches in straight-set decisions that resulted in a 6-3, 6-3 win for sophomore Page Freeman and a 6-3, 6-1 win for freshman Yashna Yellayi.

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Observer File Photo
Irish senior Ally Bojczuk swings through a volley against Bowling Green in a match Notre Dame won 7-0 at home on Jan. 23, 2019.


The only split set decision in the singles between the Irish and the Eagles was between BC first-year Marice Aguiar and Notre Dame junior Maeve Koscielski. Koscielski opened the match with a 7-6 set win, but Aguiar answered with a 7-6 win and a 6-2 deciding set to close their match.

Boston College went on to sweep the doubles matches. The No. 1 match between Long/Wilcox and Corse/Freeman was decided 5-2 and went unfinished. Eagles pair Aguiar and Lopez had already defeated Bojczuk and Koscielski of the Irish, 6-4, earning the visitors the doubles point.

Both losses in the doubles and the two singles losses cost Notre Dame the match, with BC earning another singles point uncontested due to a reduced Irish roster and COVID-19 related limitations.

Sunday’s match started rocky for the Irish, with singles matches No. 1 and 2 both going to the Orange. Corse fell to Syracuse first year Viktoriya Kanapatskaya (7-6, 6-2) and Bojczuk fell to Syracuse graduate student Natalie Novotna in a split match after coming back to win the second set (7-5, 2-6, 6-2). Freeman and Koscielski brought the Irish back into it after winning matches No. 3 and 4 respectively in two straight-set wins (6-4, 6-1 and 7-6, 6-3).

Notre Dame went on to win the doubles matches (6-1 and 6-3 with 3-5 unfinished) but it was the No. 5 singles match where Yellayi fell to Syracuse sophomore Polina Kozyreva and the fact that the Irish had to forfeit another No. 6 match for the same reasons as with Boston College that Syracuse came away with the win.

The Irish will be back on the court next weekend to face off against North Carolina and Duke on Feb. 27 and 28, respectively, both at 11 a.m. The matches can be watched live at UND.com