Feb. 6, 2002
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 10th-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team will travel to Lexington, Ky. this week to take part in the United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championships at the Louisville Tennis Club. The Irish, appearing in the tournament for the first time since 1996, are scheduled to open play Thursday at 9 a.m., taking on 7th-ranked Pepperdine. If the Irish win, they will take on the winner of the match between #1 Georgia and 53rd-ranked Brown Friday at 12:30 p.m. Notre Dame is guaranteed to play matches on Friday and Saturday and will advance to Sunday’s final if the Irish win each of their first three contests.
LAST WEEK’S ACTION: Notre Dame notched a pair of victories over Big-10 schools to improve to 6-1 this season. It is the best start for Notre Dame since 1997.
On Friday, the Irish played host to #24 Ohio State at the Eck Tennis Pavilion and gained a 6-1 victory. Senior Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France), teaming up for the first time, delivered a 9-7 win at No. 3 doubles to clinch the doubles point for Notre Dame. The Irish then took each of the top five singles matches for the win. Highlighting the victory were Irish wins at each of the top three spots over players ranked higher than anyone on Notre Dame’s roster. Senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia), ranked 95th, defeated #20 Jeremy Wurtzman 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 singles, while Talarico notched a 6-2, 6-1 over 16th-ranked Phil Metz at No. 2 and classmate Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) won over #72 Adrian Bohane 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5 at No. 3. The win marked the 14th in a row for the Irish over Ohio State.
On Sunday, Notre Dame traveled to Evanston, Ill. and got a 5-2 victory over Northwestern in the new Combe Tennis Center, which was dedicated last weekend. The Irish lost the doubles point, but then won five of six singles matches to capture the victory. Two Notre Dame players notched victories in three sets, with Taborga winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 at No. 1 and Scott registering a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 triumph at No. 5
NATIONAL TEAM INDOORS: The National Team Indoor Championships is the premier national team indoor tournament. It features 16 of the top teams in the country and has been held each year since 1973. The Irish will compete for the seventh time, but the first since 1996. UCLA is the defending champion in the event. The Bruins and three other Pac-10 schools have combined to win each title since 1987. Either Stanford or UCLA has been victorious in each of the past 12 years. Only three times has a non-California school won the event and every champion has been from either California or Texas. Five teams on Notre Dame?s 2002 dual-match schedule are in the field: Duke (W, 4-3), Illinois, Indiana State, host Kentucky and SMU. Also making the tournament is Southern California, which the Irish defeated 5-2 in an exhibition match in October. Rounding out the field are Brown, California, NCAA champion Georgia, Mississippi, Pepperdine, San Diego State, Stanford, NCAA finalist Tennessee and UCLA. The Irish have posted a 6-12 record in their previous six appearances, highlighted by a semifinal finish in 1992. The tournament features all of the top 12 teams in the nation. The field also includes a number of outstanding individual performers. Fourteen of the top 25 singles players will be in action, as will six of the top seven and 11 of the top 17 doubles pairs.
IRISH vs. WAVES: Notre Dame and Pepperdine will meet for just the third time on Thursday and the first time since 1993. The Waves were victorious in both previous meetings. The first contest was in the third-place match of the 1990 H.E.B. Collegiate Championship when Pepperdine won 5-4, snapping a 14-match winning streak for the Irish. The last meeting between the schools was in 1993, when the fourth-ranked Waves downed #6 Notre Dame 6-1 in a regular-season match played in Tempe, Ariz. Pepperdine is one of nine teams (out of 90 opponents) that the Irish are winless against in the Bob Bayliss era.
FOR THE FIRST TIME?: In his more than 14 seasons as head coach at Notre Dame, Bob Bayliss has faced 90 different teams and has beaten 81 of them at least one time. Of the nine teams that Bayliss’ Irish have not defeated, six of them will be participating in the National Team Indoor Championships: California, Mississippi, Pepperdine, Stanford, Tennessee and UCLA. The other three teams to have defeated Notre Dame in the Bayliss era without losing are Penn State, South Alabama and Washington.
FOUR!!: The No. 4 singles position has been a strength of the Irish over the past two seasons. Last year, Notre Dame players compiled a 21-2 record in that slot and all three competitors responsible for that mark returned to the fold in 2002. This season, Irish players are 7-0 at No. 4, making Notre Dame a combined 28-2 (.933) at the position over the past two seasons.
JAVY THE ONE: After never playing the position prior to this season, senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) has been dominant in action at No. 1 singles. He has posted a 4-0 record, including straight-set wins over #74 Jonathan Endrikat of UC-Irvine and #20 Jeremy Wurtzman of Ohio State. Overall, Taborga is 6-1 in dual-match play and has won 10 of his last 12 singles matches, also including wins over #97 Prakash Armitraj of USC and #24 Michael Yani of Duke (avenging a defeat in fall play). Both of his losses in that span were to ranked players (#22 Harsh Mankad and #78 Aleksey Zharinov, both of Minnesota). Taborga is 12-0 when winning the first set this season.
CAN YOU TAKE ME HIGHER?: In the Ohio State match, three Irish seniors defeated Buckeye singles players ranked higher than anyone on Notre Dame’s roster. Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Fla.) knocked off 16th-ranked Phil Metz 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2, while 95th-ranked Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) downed #20 Jeremy Wurtzman 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1 and #88 Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) upset 72nd-ranked Adrian Bohane 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5 at No. 3.
SOPHOMORE/SENIOR SINGLES SUPERLATIVES: In dual-match play, Notre Dame is 33-9 (.786) in singles matches, bolstered by dominating performances from a number of sophomores and seniors. Sophomore Luis Haddock-Morales (Caguas, Puerto Rico) is 6-1, including the match-clinching win over Alex Bose of Duke, in which he came back from a 4-2 deficit in the third set to clinch the Irish win. Haddock-Morales is 15-2 overall, 10-0 this season at home and is 27-0 in his career when winning the first set. Classmate Matthew Scott (Paris, France) has won all seven of his matches this spring and has won 13 of his last 14, dating back to the fall. He is 15-2 overall. Senior Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) is 6-1 in dual matches, including a win over 16th-ranked Phil Metz of Ohio State, while classmate Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.) has won both of his dual matches this spring. Laflin is 8-0 this season, but has won 10 in a row and 22 of his last 24 singles matches, dating back to ’99-00. Senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) has also been a key contributor (see previous note).