Irish Beat Blue Devils to Win Third Straight

NOTRE DAME, Indiana — The Notre Dame Men’s Tennis team earned their third straight victory on Friday with a 5-2 win over the Duke Blue Devils at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.

Despite three hard-fought doubles matches, the Blue Devils claimed the doubles point to start the match, with the lone Irish victory coming from Brandon Ancona and William Howells at the three spot, 6-1. Tristan McCormick and Axel Nefve fell, 4-6, and Richard Ciamarra and Matt Gamble lost 3-6. 

Not to be set back, the Irish rebounded quickly in singles play as Nefve and Ciamarra worked their way to quick victories. Nefve won the first point for the Irish and Ciamarra was close behind with the second to take over the lead and the Irish never looked back. 

Brandon Ancona claimed the next win on the six court and Connor Fu soon thereafter clinched the victory for the Irish, finding himself at the bottom of a dog pile as his teammates celebrated his effort. McCormick posted another straight set victory, the fifth for the Irish on the day. Matthew Che put up a long and hard fight against Luca Keist at the four spot, ultimately falling in a third set super tie breaker, 10-7, after splitting the first two sets. 

With the win, the Irish move to 8-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play. 

Notre Dame MTEN 5 , Duke 2

Singles competition 

1. Axel Nefve (ND) def. Garrett Johns (DUKE), 6-1, 6-0
2. Richard Ciamarra (ND) def. Edu Guell (DUKE), 6-3, 6-0
3. Tristan McCormick (ND) def. Sean Sculley (DUKE), 6-4, 6-4
4. Luca Keist (DUKE) def. Matthew Che (ND), 6-4, 6-7, 10-7
5. Connor Fu (ND) def. Faris Khan (DUKE), 6-3, 6-3
6. Brandon Ancona (ND) def. Andrew Dale (DUKE), 6-4, 6-4

Doubles competition 

1. Sculley/Johns (DUKE) def. McCormick/Nefve (ND), 6-4
2. Guell/Keist (DUKE) def. Ciamarra/Gamble (ND), 6-3
3. Ancona/Howells (ND) def. Rubell/Zhang (DUKE), 6-1

Next Up
The Irish will continue their homestand when they host North Carolina on Sunday, March 7, at noon ET. 

While fans are unable to attend matches at the Eck Tennis Pavilion due to health and safety protocol, live stats are available at UND.com/mediastats and live streaming is available at UND.com/tennisstream.

—ND—