SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s team hosted the defending national champion Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday in a match at the Eck Tennis Pavilion but dropped the contest 5-2 overall. But not before the Irish could pickup some singles wins from top player Sebastian Dominko and veteran Addy Vashistha.
In doubles, Dominko and partner Connor Fu picked up their 12th win of the season at the top position in the doubles lineup with a 6-3 win. After the #2 team faltered and lost 6-2, eyes would go to the #3 doubles team of Yu Zhang and Evan Lee. After getting down a break at 5-3, the Irish pair would win three-straight games to take a late lead in the set before their Cavalier opponents forced a tiebreaker which they would win 7-3 and take the overall doubles point.
Notre Dame would win three first sets in singles but Virginia would take the other three. On the courts UVA won, they would capture second sets and win the match, securing points at #6, #2 and #3 singles. But with the remaining matches being played out, the Irish would battle to get on the board.
Vashistha, playing at #4 singles and fresh off a clinching win against Virginia Tech on Friday, won a straight set match 6-3, 6-4 to get the first point for his team. Dominko would come out on the right side of a tightly contested first set against his opponent who is ranked #25 in the country. After winning the first set 7-6, a tiebreak he was down early in, Dominko ran away with the second set to win his fourth match of the weekend after winning both singles and doubles Friday as well.
The remaining match at #5 saw Zhang quickly take a 6-1 first set in his favor before dropping the second 6-2. In the third, with the team match already decided, he would fall in a 10-point tiebreak to end the afternoon and finalize the 5-2 victory for Virginia.
Up Next:
The men’s team will head south for a spring break trip this week culminating in the first ACC road matches of the season. On Friday, the Irish will play the #60 Miami Hurricanes in Coral Gables at 3 p.m. Then a trip to the northern part of the state will be to take on the #23 Florida State Seminoles at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
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#47 Notre Dame 2 – #13 Virginia 5
Doubles
- #40 Dominko/Fu(ND) def. Rodesch/Woodall(UVA) 6-3
- Montes/Goetz(UVA) def. Che/Malkowski(ND) 6-2
- Kiefer/Schulenberg(UVA) def. Lee/Zhang(ND) 7-6(3)
Order of Finish(1, 2, 3)
Singles
- #43…