Oct. 5, 2006
Pacific Palisades, Calif. – The third-ranked Notre Dame senior doubles’ team of Catrina Thompson and Christian Thompson opened up defense of their 2005 Riviera/ITA All-American Championship with an 8-1 rout of No. 17 Lindsey Nelson and Dianne Matias of USC. The 27th-ranked Irish duo of junior Brook Buck and sophomore Kelcy Tefft knocked off No. 5 Lindsay Burdette and Anne Yelsey of Stanford, 8-4. Catrina Thompson also opened with a victory over No. 88 Beier Ko of Harvard, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-0, in the first round of singles.
The Thompsons evoked a little bit of revenge in their first round victory over the Trojans’ Nelson and Matias. The twins were upset in the first round of last spring’s NCAA Doubles Championship by Nelson and Luana Magnani. The Thompsons left little doubt on Thursday and cruised to their fourth victory of the season without a loss. They improved their career doubles’ record to 76-31.
The Thompsons will get another opportunity to avoke some revenge when they face Audrey Banada and Romy Farrah of Miami Friday. The Irish were eliminated from the 2006 NCAA Tournament last spring by the Hurricanes.
Buck and Tefft upped their season record to 3-1 and their career mark to 37-7. Yelsey is a two-time All-American and was a member of last year’s ITA National Doubles Team of the Year. Yelsey and Burdette, a freshman, separately represented Stanford in this year’s US Open doubles draw.
The victory for Buck and Tefft is the first for an Irish doubles team, other than the Thompson twins, over a top-five opponent since Lauren Connelly and Alicia Salas defeated No. 3 Sarah Riske and Aleke Tsoubanos of Vanderbilt on May 10, 2003.
Buck and Tefft move onto the second round to play No. 4 Roxanne Clarke and Kady Pooler of Arizona State tomorrow morning.
Catrina Thompson appeared headed to a first round loss to Ko. She not only dropped the opening set, 6-7 (5), but trailed 5-1 and 40-15 in the second set. After battling off three match points, Catrina Thompson drew within 5-2 in the second set and proceeded to win five consecutive points for a 7-5 victory. She carried that momentum into the final set and cruised 6-0.
Catrina Thompson advances to face No. 9 Diana Srebrovic of Florida tomorrow in the second round.
This is the first of three national championship events during the 2006-07 collegiate tennis season. Two others are the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November and the season-ending NCAA Championships in May in Athens, Ga.
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