May 15, 1998
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame’s third-seeded and 24th-ranked men’s tennis lost its opening round match to sixth-seeded Minnesota at the NCAA Region IV Championship for the third straight year as the Gophers edged the Irish 4-3. Despite winning the doubles point, Notre Dame lost four of six singles matches to end its season at 18-8. Minnesota advances to face second-seeded Northwestern, which survived a 4-3 match over seventh-seeded Louisville.
Notre Dame’s senior No. 2 doubles pair of Vijay Freeman and Dan Rothschild beat Jorge Duenas and Tyson Parry 8-5 to clinch the doubles point to give the Irish a 1-0 lead. Brian Patterson and Jakub Pietrowski won at No. 1 doubles while Matt Horsley and Ryan Sachire lost at No. 3 doubles.
Patterson put the Irish up 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Martin Michalowski at No. 3 singles. Adam Selkirk, who lost to Pietrowski 6-1, 6-1 in Notre Dame’s 4-3 season opening win at Minnesota, up ended Pietrowski at No. 2 singles 6-2, 6-4 for Minnesota’s first point. Tom Chicoine, a 6-0, 6-3 loser to Sachire in the first match, knotted the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 7-6 win after Sachire served for the second set at 5-3.
The Irish briefly went ahead 3-2 as Matt Horsley beat Jorge Duenas 6-3, 7-6 at No. 5 singles. Jon Svensson knotted the match at 3-3 with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Rothschild at No. 4 singles.
Tyson Parry then held off Eric Enloe at No. 6 singles with a 6-4, 7-6 win to clinch Minnesota’s 4-3 win. Parry served for the match at 5-4 before Enloe broke serve to keep the Irish hopes alive. Enloe held serve for 6-5 and lead 40-0 on Parry’s serve but wasted the three set points as Parry held and cruised to a 7-1 win in the tiebreaker.
1998 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship
Region IV Championship
Notre Dame, IN
Friday, May 15
First Round
#1 seed Duke 4, #8 seed Wisconsin 0
#4 seed Purdue 4, #5 seed Michigan 2
#6 seed Minnesota 4, # 3 seed Notre Dame 3
#2 seed Northwestern 4, #7 Louisville 3
Saturday, May 16
Semifinals
Duke vs. Purdue, 10:00 a.m. EST
Minnesota vs, Northwestern, 2:00 p.m. EST
Sunday, May 17
Championship
Semifinal winners, 1:00 p.m. EST
First Round Results
Duke 4, Wisconsin 0
Singles
Doug Root (D) vs. Mark Loughrin, susp.; Alberto Brause (D) vs. John Thomsen, susp.; Dmitry Muzyka (D) def. David Chang, 6-4, 6-3; Ramsey Smith (D) vs. Jeff Malik, susp.; Jordan Wile (D) def. Stefan Reist, 6-1, 4-6, 6-0; Marko Cerenko (D) def. Adam Schumacher, 6-1, 6-1.
Doubles (most doubles points is worth one match point)
Root and Smith (D) def. Loughrin and Schumacher, 8-6; Muzyka and Wile (D) def. David Chang and Thomsen, 8-4; Andres Pedroso and Ted Rueger (D) vs. Malik and Tony Pederson, susp.
Duke Head Coach Jay Lapidus
“This was a good first round match for us. They were a strong team and pushed us in singles and were strong in doubles. Tomorrow will be tougher for us.”
“They gave us some tough matches and tested us but we played well enough to get off the courts in the heat. It was a perfect first round match for us.”
Purdue 4, Michigan 2
Singles
Jamie Gordon (P) vs. David Paradzik, susp.; Matt Wright (M) def. Cris James, 7-6 (4), 6-1; Derek Myers (P) vs. Arvid Sawn, susp.; Jason Marshall (P) def. William Farah, 7-6 (0), 6-0; Dan Swan (P) vs. Brook Blain, susp.; John Long (M) def. Steve Brizendine, 7-5, 6-2.
Doubles (most doubles points is worth one match point)
James and Myers (P) def. Blain and Swan, 5-4; Gordon and Marshall (P) and Wright and Jake Raiton, 8-4; G.T. Cozad and Swan (P) vs. Mike Pusztai and Brad McFarlane.
Purdue Head Coach Tim Madden
“It is a tough thing to beat Michigan three times in one season. It was tough beating them the first two times this year and it was even tougher today. Our individuals got tougher and came up with big wins.”
On the difference in the match:
“Our younger guys really came through in the pressure even though they were up and down this year. For our freshmen to come up with big wins like that was huge.”
On Saturday’s match with Duke:
“Duke is one of the top teams in the country and a national power like we are striving to be. They are very talented and we are just going to go out and have fun.”
Michigan Head Coach Brian Eisner
“The two matches we lost to Purdue earlier this year were very close and today was just as close. I thought that if we played well, we would win the match but we just couldn’t get to a higher level than we did.”
On losing the doubles point:
“I was still confident after losing the doubles point because we were in a lot of the singles matches. You have to tip your hat to Purdue and give them credit. They are a great team and a tough opponent.”
Minnesota 4, Notre Dame 3
Singles
Tom Chicoine (M) def. Ryan Sachire, 6-3, 7-6 (4); Adam Selkirk (M) def. Jakub Pietrowski, 6-2, 6-4; Brian Patterson (N) def, Martin Michalowski, 6-2, 6-1; Jon Svensson (M) def. Danny Rothschild, 6-3, 7-5; Matt Horsley (N) def. Jorge Duenas, 6-3, 7-5 (5); Tyson Parry (M) def. Eric Enloe, 6-4, 7-6 (1).
Doubles (most doubles points is worth one match point)
Patterson and Pietrowski (N) def. Chicoine and Michalowski, 8-5; Freeman and Rothschild (N) def. Duenas and Parry, 8-5; Martin Kristoffersen and Selkirk (M) def. Horsley and Sachire, 8-6.
Minnesota Head Coach David Geatz
“We’ve been very lucky lately and we’ve won matches that we shouldn’t win. If Enloe had won the second set, I thought we were done. We were very fortunate to win.”
On Tyson Parry replacing Martin Kristoffersen at No. 6 singles:
“Our original No. 6 guy was supposed to play but he had a touch of the flu so we didn’t think he could play both doubles and singles in the heat. Tyson has been playing great so it would have been tough to keep him out of the lineup. He played really well.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Bobby Bayliss
“I am pretty devastated right now. We had a lot of fundamental breakdowns. We thought we needed to win two matches in the first three singles but didn’t. We fought hard but didn’t play well.”
“We have no excuses. We’ve been finished with exams for a week. We didn’t overwork them. We played a tough schedule. We thought we were well prepared. With the exception of the two winners in singles, we didn’t play well. Everyone was capable of winning. This is a huge disappointment.”
On winning the double point:
“Even though we won the doubles point, I was concerned because we didn’t play well.”
Northwestern 4, Louisville 3
Singles
Michael Mather (L) def. Alex Witt, 6-3, 6-2; Marc Silva (N) def. Tvrtko Kujundzic, 7-5, 6-0; Ry Tarpley (N) def. Robby Robertson, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4; Doug Bohaboy (N) def. Chris Steel, 6-2, 6-2; Martin Bengtsson (N) def. Oliver Cantrell, 7-5, 6-3; Oliver Messerli (L) def. Brad Erickson, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (most doubles points is worth one match point)
Mather andSteel (L) def. Bohaboy and Witt, 8-4; Kane Easter and Robertson (L) def. Silva and Tarpley, 8-5; Bengtsson and Derrick Nguyen (L) vs. Kujundzic and Cantrell, susp.
Northwestern Head Coach Paul Torricelli
On NU’s win over Louisville:
“We were very lucky to win today. We got off to a bad start with a very poor doubles performance. That subpar performance gave Louisville some life. Fortunately, we got off to a quick start in singles, with Doug (Bohaboy), Mark (Silva) and Martin (Bengtsson) each winning their first set. Those wins gave us a lot of momentum early on.”
On Ry Tarpley’s win in the deciding match:
“Ry did a great job today. He came through when we needed him. Martin’s (Bengtsson) win also was big for us. It gave us momentum going into the final match.”
Louisville Head Coach Rex Ecarma
“Northwestern is a great team and won this region last year so for us to be in a position to win makes me very happy. We came here to win but we didn’t so in that sense it is frustrating to lose.”
“It has been a great season for us, a breakthrough season. We won a lot of matches and we have a great group of guys coming in next year who will help us a lot.”
On Robby Robertson’s loss in the deciding match:
“If Robbie stayed patient, we could have won but he (Ry Tarpley) came up with some great shots and serves so you have to give them credit. We didn’t lose, Northwestern edged us out.”