Feb. 5, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Fighting Irish men’s tennis team travels to Durham, N.C. to face Duke this weekend as part of a five-match road swing. The match versus the Blue Devils will take place at noon on Sunday, Feb. 7 at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
Live stat updates of Sunday’s match can be accessed via the Duke University men’s tennis schedule page at www.goduke.com, while a complete recap will be posted on und.com at the conclusion of the match.
Series Breakdown
Duke leads the all-time series by a 15-7 margin. Under head coach Bobby Bayliss, the gap has narrowed as Duke holds a 10-7 advantage versus the 23rd-year head coach. Notre Dame has also won the past three meetings, which took place over the last three years.
In 2007, the Irish won at home, 6-1, and followed with a narrow 4-3 win at Duke in 2008. In 2009, the Irish earned a home win, 5-2. In last season’s match, the Irish claimed the doubles point and used singles wins from Sam Keeton (Kansas City, Mo./The Pembroke Hill School), Casey Watt (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland), Daniel Stahl (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and Brett Helgeson ’09 to establish the final 5-2 advantage.
Scouting The Blue Devils
Duke enters the weekend with a 2-1 record and ranked 21st in the most recent ITA release (Feb. 4). Before facing the Irish on Sunday, Duke will play host to 12th-ranked Illinois at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5. Duke’s two wins were earned over Elon (7-0) and Auburn (4-2), with their loss coming against Alabama (2-4).
The Blue Devils are led by second year head coach Ramsey Smith. Last season, Smith guided Duke to a 16-9 record and to an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The 2010 Duke lineup includes three ranked singles players and one ranked doubles team including 62nd-ranked senior Dylan Arnould, 77th-ranked sophomore Torsten Wietoska and 17th-ranked freshman Henrique Cunha. Junior Reid Carleton and Cunha are the eighth ranked doubles team.
Last Weekend
The Irish split a pair of matches in Columbus, Ohio as part of the 2010 ITA Kickoff Weekend to move to 3-2 on the year. The Irish dropped their opening round match to No. 35 Tulsa, 4-3, but rebounded to down No. 51 New Mexico, 4-1. In the win over New Mexico, the Irish swept doubles play and used singles wins from Watt, Stephen Havens (Cincinnati, Ohio/Hill Christian School) and David Anderson (Sandwich, Mass./Sandwich) to clinch the win.
Notes
The ITA released the third round of team rankings for the 2010 season on Feb. 4 and the Irish moved to 34th … dating back to March 28 of last season, David Anderson is 8-0 in his last 10 dual season singles starts (two matches unfinished) … Notre Dame’s class of 2014 has been ranked fifth-best in the country according to a recent tennisrecruiting.net poll, which was released on Jan. 25 … The most recent ranking mark Notre Dame’s third consecutive top-six signing class according to the website making Notre Dame the only program in the nation that can currently boast a top-six recruiting ranking for three consecutive years (2008, 2009 & 2010).
— ND —