Oct. 12, 2017
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team will look to continue its so-far successful fall season this weekend as the Irish begin competition at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships at Michigan beginning on Friday.
WHAT: ITA Midwest Regional Championships
WHERE: Varsity Tennis Center | Ann Arbor, Mich.
WHEN: Oct. 12-17, 2017
RESULTS: Live Scoreboard
Notes To Know
- The Irish will send a majority of their team to compete at this season’s ITA Midwest Regional Championships, held at Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center. While the main singles draw will not begin until Saturday, the Irish have entered three doubles pairings with competition kicking off on Friday. Seeded pairs of seniors Brooke Broda and Allison Miller (No. 3 seed) and freshman Cameron Corse and sophomore Zoe Spence (No. 9-16 seed) will receive a first-round bye. Junior Rachel Chong and freshman Ally Bojczuk will face off against Marquette’s Natalija Popovic and Paul Tormos Sanchez in first-round action.
- The singles main draw will be revealed on Friday at the conclusion of qualifying singles play. The top eight in the qualifying rounds will advance to the main draw, though the Irish will compete solely in the main draw.
- Freshmen Cameron Corse and Ally Bojczuk and junior Rachel Chong are each undefeated this fall, all sporting 3-0 records after winning their respective flights at the Wildcat Invitational.
- Notre Dame finished last season ranked No. 29 in the final Oracle/ITA team rankings, marking its highest finish since coming in at No. 19 following the 2013-14 campaign. The Irish, who went 18-10 on the season, ranked as high as No. 26 in 2017 and won 14 of their first 15 matches.
- The 2016-17 Irish featured five players who won at least 17 singles matches: Allison Miller (21-12), Zoe Spence (20-16), Monica Robinson (19-13), Brooke Broda (18-11) and Rachel Chong (17-8). All but Robinson return this season.
- Robinson became the program’s first winner of the National ITA-Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership award winner following the 2016-17 season. The award is given annually to men’s and women’s players across all divisions who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements.
Meet the Freshmen
The four Irish freshmen, who came in as the No. 8 class in the nation according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, did not need to wait long to see success in their Irish careers, with all seeing the court in Notre Dame’s first fall appearance at Northwestern’s Wildcat Invitational. Ally Bojczuk, Cameron Corse and Caroline Dunleavy all came in as blue chip prospects, while Evangeline Shannon is a three-star-rated talent. At Northwestern, Bojczuk and Corse went undefeated to win their respective flights, while Dunleavy was 2-1 and Shannon was 1-1.
In The Polls
The Oracle/ITA women’s tennis preseason rankings came out on Sept. 12, with both Notre Dame seniors appearing on the list. Brooke Broda was featured in both singles and doubles polls, coming in at No. 123 in singles and joining classmate Allison Miller at No. 56 in doubles.
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Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs, in addition to overseeing production of the football Gameday Magazine. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.