This weekend, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s tennis teams will each play three matches on home court at Eck Tennis Pavilion. For head coach Ryan Sachire and the Irish men, the contests against Princeton, Yale and Saint Joseph’s will offer an opportunity to continue a 2-0 start. For Alison Silverio and the women’s squad, the weekend tilts against Ball State, Illinois and DePaul will open the spring season.
Men’s tennis
The Notre Dame men’s team jumped out to a dominant, 2-0 start at home on Sunday. The Irish blanked Duquesne, as 28th-ranked junior Sebastian Dominko, senior Yu Zhang, sophomore Chase Thompson, sophomore Kyran Magimay, freshman Peter Nad and senior Jameson Corsillo all swept their singles matches. Notre Dame also went unbeaten in doubles play, with wins by the Dominko-Nad and Corsillo-Zhang pairings accounting for Notre Dame’s remaining point.
Later in the day, the Irish handled Western Michigan by a 6-1 score. Dominko, Magimay, Nad and Corsillo once again swept in singles play, while Thompson eked out a three-set defeat of Brogan Pierce. In doubles play, the Dominko-Nad and Magimay-Thompson duos each cruised to wins.
Notre Dame will first face Princeton at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The Tigers have not played a game yet and will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, for a Sunday doubleheader after battling the Irish. Last year, they went 22-8, notching their 11th consecutive winning season and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
Paul Inchauspe, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection last season, leads the Tigers as the 19th-ranked singles player in the country. Fnu Nidunjianzan went First Team All-Ivy last year as well and ranks 52nd in singles, while Landon Ardila checks in at No. 105. At the NCAA Individual Championships in November, Inchauspe reached the Round of 16 and attained All-American status, while Nidunjianzan also won his first-round match. Princeton has three doubles teams ranked inside the nation’s top 115, headlined by Inchauspe and Filippos Astreinidis at No. 51.
The Irish will take on Yale at noon on Sunday. The Bulldogs will start this season against back-to-back ACC programs, as they’ll take on Virginia Tech in Philadelphia next Saturday. They enter this season coming off consecutive 12-win seasons.
Vignesh Gogineni, a Second Team All-Ivy selection last year, stands alone for Yale in the national singles rankings at No. 91. His doubles pairing with Jason Shuler ranks 64th in the country, while Zhengqing Ji and Eric Li combine to rank 77th. Only Gogineni represented Yale at the NCAA Individual Championships this past fall, losing his first matchup.
Notre Dame will close the weekend against Saint Joseph’s at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Coming off a 7-17 campaign, their worst season in five years, the Hawks have also not yet played in the new year. They’ll travel to Northwestern and Illinois State before facing the Irish this weekend. The Hawks don’t have a player ranked in singles or doubles, but they do have two returning All-Atlantic 10 Second Team selections in Justus Agbo and Ernesto Ruy.
Women’s tennis
The Irish women will open their weekend and season against Ball State at 3 p.m. on Friday. The in-state Cardinals took a nosedive last year, transitioning from three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2021 through 2023 to a 7-15 record in 2024. When Ball State last reached the national postseason, Notre Dame knocked it out of the first round two seasons ago.
Slovenian Annika Planinsek could prove to be a tough matchup for the Irish. She finished as a First Team All-MAC selection last year and reached the Mid-American Conference Fall Championship a few months ago.
Notre Dame’s toughest matchup of the weekend will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday against Illinois. The Fighting Illini come off back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths and will not have played on Friday. They’ll enter South Bend with some familiarity, having competed in the Notre Dame Invite from Oct. 4-6.
In singles play, McKenna Schaefbauer and Violeta Martinez rank 109th and 111th, respectively, for Illinois. The Illini do not have a returning All-Big Ten player, but the conference did tab Schaefbauer on its Players to Watch List last week.
The women’s weekend will wrap up with a matchup against DePaul at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Blue Demons competed at the FIU Invitational in Miami last weekend and went 17-8 last year. Hannah Smith, an All-Big East First Team selection in 2024, performed particularly well in Miami alongside Eva Goncharov.
