On Sunday at Eck Tennis Pavilion, the Notre Dame men’s tennis team improved to 6-1 on the season with a doubleheader sweep. The Irish took down Cleveland State and Illinois State, each by a score of 6-1, stretching their win streak to four games after a loss to Princeton two Fridays ago.
Cleveland State
Notre Dame didn’t face too much objection in either of Sunday’s matches, beginning with a smooth run through doubles play against the Vikings. The top two Irish pairings of junior Sebastian Dominko with freshman Peter Nad (ranked 78th nationally) and sophomore Kyran Magimay with classmate Chase Thompson each claimed 6-1 victories, capturing the doubles point.
The Irish kept rolling into singles action, taking each of the next five available points. Sophomore Jayanth Deviah made quick work of Maxime Aremon (6-1, 6-0) in the No. 6 match for his first singles win of the spring. Dominko, ranked 28th in the country in singles, followed suit against Lincoln Battle (6-1, 6-2) in the No. 1 contest. No. 4 singles ended with Magimay victorious over Nico Jamison (6-2, 6-1), No. 2 singles resulted in a senior Yu Zhang win against Cole Chappell (6-2, 7-5) and No. 5 singles went the way of freshman Luis Llorens Saracho, who earned his first career singles win against Devin Boyer (6-1, 7-5).
Only in No. 3 singles did Cleveland State slow down the Irish, as Carl Gedlitschka rallied to defeat Nad (5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)).
Illinois State
Later on Sunday, Notre Dame reproduced its 6-1 result against the Redbirds of Illinois State, again cruising in the doubles period. Senior Jameson Corsillo teamed up with Zhang as the No. 1 duo, dominating Illinois State’s 116th-ranked pair of Caden Scarlett and Tomas Valencia by a 6-2 score. Junior Noah Becker and senior Brian Bilsey combined for their first wins of the season in No. 3 doubles, besting Tom Bevan and Manuel Pavia by a 6-1 count.
The Irish didn’t need their star singles player, Dominko, to once more earn each of the first five singles points. Nad opened the scoring with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Jett Leong in the No. 3 match. Thompson (6-3, 6-2), Zhang (6-2, 6-2), Corsillo (6-3, 6-4) and Bilsey (6-1, 6-2) each earned wins as well, with Bilsey’s dominant showing arising in the No. 6 match.
The No. 4 match did not go the way of the Irish, as Christian Capacci outlasted Magimay in another close contest, winning by a score of 7-6 (7-0), 6-4.
Through three weeks of play, Notre Dame’s ranked pairing of Dominko and Nad still leads Irish doubles teams with four wins. Overall, each of the two are 5-1 as doubles players this season. In singles, Dominko, Nad and Thompson each hold a 5-1 record to tie for the team lead, with Thompson now having won three consecutive matches.
Notre Dame will take next weekend off before returning to action against William & Mary and Northern Illinois at home on Saturday, Feb. 8. After that, the Irish will hit the road for the first time to battle Big Ten foe Illinois on Feb. 15.
