ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team competed at the ITA Regionals in Ann Arbor this past weekend hosted by the University of Michigan. Ten Irish players saw action throughout the event.
Evan Lee kicked off play in the qualifying draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Eastern Illinois on Thursday. But later that afternoon he fell in his second match to his opponent from Northern Illinois.
On Friday, the Fighting Irish would have five teams competing in the doubles main draw. A lot of competitive tennis was played by those wearing the ND monogram, highlighted by Chase Thompson and Yu Zhang who won two rounds to start. They would beat their first opponents from Eastern Illinois before staging a comeback from 1-4 down to win seven-straight games and defeat #17 seeded Northwestern team 8-4. But their run would end at the hands of the top seeded Illinois team in a very tight set that would need a tiebreaker before the Illini would come out on top 8-7(5).
Jean-Marc Malkowski and Evan Lee also picked up a first round win over a different Panther pair from Eastern Illinois. Then they would drop a close 8-6 match to #4 seed Illinois 8-6. Jamie Corsillo and Kyran Magimay would stage a comeback from 2-5 down before falling in a tiebreak in their opener while Noah Becker and played a close set with a Northwestern duo. Nil Giraldez and Jayanth Devaiah had a first round bye and played the #5 seeds from Michigan tough but ultimately came up short.
Saturday was the first day of main draw singles play and eight Irish players were in the draw. Thompson, Zhang and Giraldez all picked up first round wins over Toledo, UIC and Wisconsin respectively. In the second round, Thompson would win a war of a second round against top-8 seed from Michigan State. After splitting the first two sets, Thompson would go hold for hold until late in the set where he would break and take the match 7-5 in the third. Giraldez would also play to 7-5 in the third set but would be on the wrong end of the scoreline to Michigan State while Zhang would lose to the #3 seed in the draw.
Sunday morning, Thompson would take on a veteran from Illinois in the round of 16. It would take a tiebreak in the first set and a 6-4 second set but the Irish freshman prevailed to advance to the quarterfinals later in the day. But his run ultimately ended at the hands of the top seed in the tournament from Ohio State with a 6-2, 6-4 loss.
Five players got additional matches on…