The Notre Dame tennis teams enjoyed a successful weekend of play, posting a combined record of 3-0 between Friday and Sunday. The 22nd-ranked women’s team improved to 11-1 by defeating No. 57 SMU 4-1 in its ACC opener, while the men’s squad moved to 10-2 with a 7-0 sweep of Wisconsin and a 4-2 takedown of Northwestern. Both teams will exclusively play ACC matches next weekend.
Women’s team
Notre Dame’s Friday matchup against ACC newcomer SMU marked only its second road trip of the season. The Irish came in having won three consecutive matches, with their only loss taking place on Feb. 7 against No. 17 Ohio State.
Winning two of the three doubles matches by a 6-3 score, Notre Dame secured the day’s first point in Dallas. Juniors Akari Matsuno and Rylie Hanford got the job done in the No. 2 contest, while freshman Bianca Molnar and junior Bojana Pozder found success in the No. 3 match. Only in No. 1 doubles did the Mustangs claim victory, as Sophie Llewelyn and Ellie Pittman combined for a 6-4 defeat of seniors Carrie Beckman and Maria Olivia Castedo.
SMU briefly tied the score to start singles play, as Drew Morris knocked off Beckman (6-3, 6-4) in the No. 3 match. However, the Irish wouldn’t concede another point from there, as senior Nibi Ghosh won comfortably against Caroline McGinley (6-3, 6-3) in No. 5 singles to put Notre Dame back in front.
Notre Dame’s next two wins, which clinched the overall match, could have gone either way in the second set. Molnar (No. 4 singles) and Hanford (No. 6 singles) each comfortably won the first set but required tiebreakers to decide the second at 6-6. Hanford won her tiebreaker 7-4 against Millie Skelton, while Molnar went to extra points against Arianna Stavropoulos and won hers 11-9. Each of the other two singles matches were tied 1-1 through two sets, adding to the importance of Notre Dame’s tiebreaker success.
Next weekend, the Irish will play their first two-match weekend of ACC play. They’ll host Wake Forest at 4 p.m. on Friday before welcoming No. 14 NC State to South Bend for an 11 a.m. match on Sunday.
Men’s team
Continuing to play against Big Ten schools after last weekend’s road loss to Illinois, Notre Dame bounced back in a big way on Friday. The 50th-ranked Irish cleaned out No. 53 Wisconsin in South Bend, fully sweeping the Badgers by a 7-0 score.
Though Wisconsin claimed the first-finishing doubles match, defeating freshman Luis Llorens Saracho and senior Yu Zhang in the No. 3 match, Notre Dame ended up with the doubles point. Freshman Peter Nad and sophomore Chase Thompson won in No. 1 doubles (6-4), while junior Sebastian Dominko and sophomore Kyran Magimay sealed the 1-0 start in No. 2 doubles (7-5).
In singles play, the Irish lost only three sets in total. Dominko (6-1, 6-3) and Thompson (6-2, 6-3) were dominant in the top two matches, setting up Nad (7-5, 6-3) to clinch Notre Dame’s team victory in No. 4 singles. For good measure, Magimay (No. 6 singles), Zhang (No. 3 singles) and senior Jameson Corsillo (No. 5 singles) outlasted their opponents in three sets to keep Wisconsin off the scoreboard.
Two days later, the Irish headed to the opposite side of Lake Michigan and battled Northwestern. Notre Dame convincingly earned the doubles point this time, as Nad/Thompson (6-0 in the No. 1 match) and junior Noah Becker/Thompson (6-1 in the No. 3 match).
Dominko again thrived to start singles play, winning the No. 1 match against Saiprakash Goli (6-1, 6-3). The Wildcats would tie the overall score at 2-2 with victories in No. 2 and No. 4 singles, as Zhang and Nad each lost in two sets. However, Llorens Saracho put the Irish on the brink with a close win in No. 6 singles (7-6 (7-1), 6-4), and Thompson finished the job. After dropping the No. 3 contest’s first set, he battled back, winning 6-3 in the second set and prevailing in a third-set tiebreaker.
ACC play begins next weekend for the Notre Dame men, as the Irish will visit No. 56 Georgia Tech at 5 p.m. on Friday and No. 31 Clemson at noon on Sunday.
