SOUTH BEND, Ind. – On a Friday afternoon in the Eck Tennis Pavilion, the University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team had their senior night match and came away with a 4-1 win against Clemson.
The doubles point would see back and forth matches at the top two spots. The #2 team of Chase Thompson and Nil Giraldez got the first match win of the day for the Irish with a 7-5 victory after being down 5-4 and winning three straight games. Since the visiting team took the match at #3, all eyes turned to the #11 ranked team in the country, Sebastian Dominko and Jean-Marc Malkowski, at the top spot in the lineup. After being broken earlier in the set, the Irish duo fought back to get on serve behind some great returning and a pair of backhand returns down the line by Malkowski. At 6-5 up, the duo would break at deuce to win the match against their nationally ranked opponents and send Notre Dame into the singles portion of play with a 1-0 lead.
In singles, Clemson took a quick victory on the #4 court to even the match. But then Notre Dame took control of the match with dominating play by the Irish battling on the east side of the building on courts #1, #3 and #5. Dominko, taking on another ranked singles player, would go down an early break before winning seven of the final eight games of the match and taking the match 6-4, 6-1.
Kyran Magimay won his first set 6-2 at #5 singles. After dropping the first two games of the second set, the freshman from England dug in and won six-straight games to put another tally next to the Notre Dame name, leaving the Irish a point away from victory. Magimay’s classmate, Thompson, would seal the conference win with a 6-1, 6-3 match win at #3.
After the match, the Notre Dame men’s team recognized their two graduating players, senior Jean-Marc Malkowski and graduate student Nil Giraldez. Malkowski is graduating with a finance degree from the Mendoza College of Business while Giraldez is graduating from Mendoza with a master’s degree in finance.
Up Next:
The men will take to the courts again on Sunday at noon for their penultimate home match of the season as they host #35 ranked Georgia Tech. Then a rare mid-week match against Louisville on Wednesday will wrap up dual match play at home.
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Friday Box Score
#54 Notre Dame – #60 Clemson
Doubles
- #13 Dominko/Malkowski(ND) def. #69 Vukadin/Smith(CLEM) 7-5
- Giraldez/Thompson(ND) def….