Notre Dame men’s tennis will be back in action this weekend against two ACC opponents, playing at Clemson on Friday and at Georgia Tech on Sunday. The Irish are heading into this crucial weekend with a two-game win streak, with a 6-1 win over Boston College and a 4-3 defeat of Butler on April 2. They enter ranked No. 54 on ITA rankings.
The Clemson Tigers will welcome the Irish to South Carolina with a record of 10-10 and conference record of 1-7. The Yellow Jackets are of similar stature, with an 11-11 overall record and 2-6 conference mark. Clemson is ranked No. 58 while GT does not crack the top 75. Both teams, like the Irish, are hoping to improve their standing before the postseason.
The Irish currently sit at a record of 12-11, with a 2-7 mark in conference play. Many of those losses came in a recent five-game skid, in which the Irish were defeated by Virginia, Miami, No. 17 Florida State, No. 14 Wake Forest, and No. 25 NC State. The Irish also lost to No. 10 North Carolina and No. 22 Duke earlier in the year. It is clear that Coach Ryan Sachire’s team has struggled in the ACC gauntlet, a narrative his team can hopefully break this weekend.
The Irish are also 1-7 on the road, though Coach Sachire and his team are not worried about that going into this weekend. Sachire believes it’s a matter of coincidence of competition, bluntly stating, “we have just played really good teams on the road.”
Unphased, and assured by recent years’ success against Clemson and Georgia Tech, men’s tennis is not looking at their home/away record with a critical eye.
Sachire also sees no drastic change in the team’s play in their wins or losses. As he says, “Sometimes we would have a hard time putting it all together to get to those four points, but during that skid there would be nine different individual competitions going on with good performances.”
Sachire, as he did in the beginning of the year, is preaching consistency — something he said has been “not there” with this year’s team. Massive change in the Irish is not on the table.
With the ACC championships fast approaching—play kicks off on April 19–the Irish are hoping to gain crucial momentum in these ACC games against lower ranked opponents. Coach Sachire wants to see his group “compete like the best team in the conference” for the remainder of the year and stay true to their identity—a team that “competes really hard at all nine positions..those teams have a great chance to win”. The Irish are looking to play without fear this weekend as they seek to improve their ACC record with the postseason looming.
The Irish take on Clemson at 5 p.m. on Friday and Georgia Tech at noon on Sunday. Both games will be streamable on the ACC network.
