After going down to the wire in a 4-3 loss with their third-straight top-five opponent in No. 5 Virginia on Friday, the Irish celebrated senior day on Sunday with two wins over No. 73 Virginia Tech and Southern Indiana. This win over the Hokies was Notre Dame's first win in ACC play on the season.
A hard-fought battle with Virginia
The freshman pairing of Luis Llorens and Peter Nad continued their hot streak on the No. 3 doubles court with a 6-2 victory. Virginia's No. 2 pair got one back, turning all eyes to court one to decide the doubles competition. After the Cavaliers battled back from an early break, junior Sebastian Dominko and sophomore Chase Thompson rode early momentum at the changeover during the set tiebreak and secured the point.
Dominko was first off the singles courts, picking up yet another ranked win over No. 21 Dylan Dietrich in straight sets. Virginia surged in front, however, winning three consecutive matches on courts three, six and five. At the No. 2 court, senior Yu Zhang closed out the second set in thrilling fashion to keep the Irish alive. After taking the first set 6-4, he failed to convert a match point at 5-3 before getting broken at 5-4 to put the match back on serve. With the tides turning, Zhang found himself in a 15-40 hole, facing three set points at 5-6. The senior from China rattled off three points to force the tiebreak, where he raced out to a lead en route to a 7-2 finish. The win was Zhang's third in a row in singles play and left the match in the hands of Nad on the No. 4 singles court for Notre Dame.
Battling a fellow freshman and top-35 junior in the world on the other side, Nad took the first set 7-5 before surrendering the second 6-3. Both players fended off break points in the decider, holding serve through the first 10 games at 5-5. That’s when Roy Horovitz took control, getting the break at 6-5 before serving it out to earn a 4-3 win for Virginia.
A first ACC win against Virginia Tech
In their 4-0 victory over the Hokies, Notre Dame started with a dominant display on the doubles courts. The No. 1 pairing of Dominko/Thompson didn't drop a game in their 6-0 win before Nad/Llorens secured the point on court three. Zhang and senior Jameson Corsillo were two points away from victory one court over when play finished.
Momentum stayed with the Irish as they took the first four sets of singles play. Nad and sophomore Kyran Magimay took comfortable straight-set victories on courts five and six, respectively to put them within a point of the match. After surrendering one opportunity to serve out his match in the second set at 5-2, Thompson calmed his nerves and closed it out the second time of asking. The other three contests were abandoned, with Dominko and Zhang early in third sets at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and Corsillo leading 3-1 on court four in the second after dropping a tight first set 7-6 in the tiebreak.
Celebrating senior day with a sweep of Southern Indiana
In their final home dual match of the season, Nad/Llorens won 6-1 at No. 2 before the pairing of sophomore Jayanth Devaiah and senior Brian Bilsey secured the point on court three by the same score. Dominko teamed up with former partner and fellow junior Noah Becker at No. 1, the pairing having their match abandoned at 5-2.
Llorens and Devaiah got quick wins at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively, to start singles play. This set up Magimay to finish off the 4-0 sweep with his 6-2, 6-1 win on court three. The remaining three Irish singles players still finished their matches, all leaving with victories. Bilsey picked up a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 4 followed shortly by a 7-5, 6-0 win by Becker at No. 5. Taking the top spot in the lineup, Zhang won his final match in the Eck Tennis Pavilion in a 10-2 match tiebreaker after surrendering the second set. All told it was a proper send-off for the Notre Dame senior class on Sunday as they took the 7-0 win.
The team will head to Florida later in the week to take on Florida State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Miami on Saturday at noon. They will look to build on their first conference win approaching the pair of ACC matchups.
