Oct. 23, 2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Notre Dame junior Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) posted another straight-set victory on Sunday in the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility to advance to the quarterfinals of the singles main draw of the Wilson/ITA Midwest Championships for the second consecutive year. The Irish also emphatically established themselves as a prolific top-to-bottom doubles squad, as their Nos. 2 and 3 teams both reached the semifinals of the doubles main draw before falling in the tournament of the top players in the ITA’s Midwest Region.
Thompson, ranked 27th and the No. 2 seed in the singles draw, continued her hot play by beating 14th-seeded Milica Veselinovic of Iowa. She improved to 8-2 this fall and will next take on a new BIG EAST rival, Gergana Ganeva of DePaul. The winner of that contest will face either fourth-seeded and 50th-ranked Alexis Prousis of Northwestern or ninth-seeded and 86th-ranked Nischella Reddy of Minnesota. Prousis – who is now 6-0 in her career against Notre Dame players in singles after a 6-0, 6-2 win over Irish senior captain captain Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) in Sunday’s round of 16 – beat Thompson twice in dual action at No. 3 during the 2003-04 campaign: 6-2, 6-1 on April 15 and 7-5, 6-1 on May 16 in the NCAA second round.
Irish junior Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.), seeded sixth, also lost in the round of 16, falling 6-3, 6-2 to 11th-seeded Georgia Rose of Northwestern.
Notre Dame was the only school with multiple teams in the semifinals of the doubles main draw, and neither of them were the top Irish squad – the Thompson twins, who are ranked #2 in the nation and won the title in the first grand slam of the season. The two singles finalists and the doubles champions in the ITA Midwest Championships will earn berths into the main draw of the season’s second grand slam, the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. The Thompson sisters already have earned a bid to the National Indoors, so they are not competing in the Midwest Championships.
A pair of Irish seniors – Connelly and Kristina Stastny (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph’s Academy) – pulled a big upset in the quarterfinals on Sunday. They knocked off the second-seeded team in the draw, 19th-ranked Sarah Batty and Laura McGaffigan from Indiana, by an 8-5 score. It was the second time this fall that the Hoosiers were upset by an Irish team, as sophomore Brook Buck (Yukon, Okla./Oklahoma Christian School) and freshman Kelcy Tefft (Enid, Okla./Chisholm H.S.) beat Batty and McGaffigan in the title match of the Hoosier Classic earlier this month. The Notre Dame seniors then lost 8-4 to Nicole Beck and Caitlin Burke from Wisconsin in the semis.
Buck and Tefft, ranked 60th and seeded fourth in this tournament, beat Brianna Knue and Macall Harkins from Illinois in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-2), in the quarterfinals, but were then defeated 8-4 by the top-seeded duo of Prousis and Cristelle Grier of Northwestern.
ITA Midwest Championships (October 23)Singles - Main Draw[11] Georgia Rose (Northwestern) def. [6] Christian Thompson (ND) 6-3, 6-2 - round of 16[4] #50 Alexis Prousis (Northwestern) def. Lauren Connelly (ND) 6-0, 6-2 - round of 16[2] #27 Catrina Thompson (ND) def. [14] Milica Veselinovic (Iowa) 7-5, 6-3 - round of 16Doubles - Main Draw[4] #60 Brook Buck/Kelcy Tefft (ND) def. Macall Harkins/Brianna Knue (Illinois) 9-8 (7-2) - quarterfinalsLauren Connelly/Kristina Stastny (ND) def. [2] #19 Sarah Batty/Laura McGaffigan (Indiana) 8-5 - quarterfinals[1] Cristelle Grier/Alexis Prousis (Northwestern) def. [4] #60 Brook Buck/Kelcy Tefft (ND) 8-4 - semifinalsNicole Beck/Caitlin Burke (Wisconsin) def. Lauren Connelly/Kristina Stastny (ND) 8-4 - semifinals
Note: Numbers in brackets are tournament seedings. Numbers preceding players’ names are ITA national rankings.