Nov. 4, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The ninth-ranked Irish doubles team of senior Brook Buck and junior Kelcy Tefft cruised past the Baylor duo of sophomore Lenka Broosova and senior Zuzana Zemenova, 6-3, 6-1, to give the University of Notre Dame its second-ever title in an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national championship Sunday at The Racquet Club of Columbus.
Buck (Yukon, OK) and Tefft (Enid, OK) captured their first ITA Indoor doubles title for the Fighting Irish and improved to 14-2 this season (73-16 for their career). The duo captured the ITA National Summer title in 2006 and won five junior national titles together prior to Notre Dame.
“We’ve played together forever, and we’ve won five juniors title, so it was nice to finally win one in college,” Buck said. “She’s like my sister, and we wanted to win this one so bad, since it’s my senior year and I wanted one before I go. It couldn’t be any better; our moms are here, and it’s perfect.”
They snapped an eight-match winning streak for the 51st-ranked Broosova and Zemenova, who dropped their fall record to 12-3.
Buck and Tefft, the third highest ranked team in the tournament although unseeded, ran the table and posted back-to-back straight set, dominating victories in the semifinals and finals.
“We lost to a great doubles team today,” said Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano. “The Notre Dame coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for developing such a strong team. It was impressive to watch them play.”
Buck and Tefft played their best tennis at the net, beating Baylor with their short game.
“Our coach in juniors really emphasized playing the net,” Tefft said. “And since we were indoors, and it’s so much faster, we thought that playing the net would be a good strategy against these girls with big hits. It would be deadly if we tried to hang back and bang it out with them. And we both like to play up at the net too.”
Buck and Tefft – who have not only captured each of the last two ITA Midwest Region titles, but also reached the semifinals of the this event last year – improved to 7-3 in their careers in grand slam events. They are now 6-1 in the National Indoor Championships over the past two seasons.
The match closes the fall season for the Irish. Notre Dame will not return to action until the dual match portion of the season opens on Jan. 20 at Louisville.
— ND —