May 22, 2002
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Notre Dame senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) and junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to the second-seeded and second-ranked doubles team from Wake Forest in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship on Wednesday afternoon at the Taube Tennis Center.
Cunha and Green, ranked 55th nationally, lost to All-Americans Janet Bergman and Bea Bielik in straight sets to finish the season with a 6-4 record together. The two did not pair up until the last weekend of March when they were penciled into the Notre Dame lineup and fell 8-1 to Bergman/Bielik in their first match together. Overall, Green was 24-17 in doubles, while Cunha was 18-22.
Green finished her career as one of the most successful doubles players in the program’s history. She posted a 105-41 (.719) mark in partnered play, which places her in a tie for second place (with classmate Becky Varnum ) in career doubles triumphs, just four short of the school record, held by 2001 graduate Michelle Dasso. Green finished her career with a combined record of 201-96 (96-55 singles, 105-41 doubles), making her just the fourth player in the program’s history to win 200 or more matches in her career (also Michelle Dasso, Kelly Zalinski and Jennifer Hall).
Bielik and Bergman improved to 32-3 this season and will face either Hillary Adams/Kelly McCain of Duke or Illinois State’s team of Alesia Mikalayeva and Liina Suurvarik in the round of 16 on Thursday. The Wake Forest team advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship each of the past two years and earned All-America honors in the process. In 2001, Bielik and Bergman lost to eventual national champions Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnoff in the round of eight.
The loss marked the end of the season for Notre Dame. The Irish finished 14-14 in team play and fell in the first round of the NCAA team championship to Wisconsin. Notre Dame loses five seniors, including three monogram winners, to graduation, but has a promising group of freshman who will join the squad in the fall.