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Irish Fall in ACC Opener to #10 North Carolina

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In the first conference match of the year, the #37 ranked University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish hosted a top-10 opponent in Eck Tennis Pavilion. North Carolina was the first on the schedule for the Irish in ACC play with the Tar Heels coming out on top 4-2.

A slow start in doubles on all three courts hurt the Irish early and they would drop the match at #2. Courts #1 and #3 would both find themselves down 5-2 and push back with a couple games in a row respectively before UNC would clinch the point with a win at the third position. Connor Fu and Sebastian Dominko would remain unfinished having battled back to extend the set and find themselves at 5-6 before the match would be abandoned.

Notre Dame would respond in singles quickly and jump out to leads on five singles courts and capture four first sets. At #6 singles, Yu Zhang demolished his opponent and got the first point on the scoreboard for the Irish with a 6-2, 6-0 win. Fu would put up the next point and knot the contest up at 2-2 with a 6-2, 7-6 at #4.

At the top of the lineup, a battle between two nationally ranked players would go as far as it could, ending in a third set tiebreak. Dominko won the first round with a 6-2 in the opening set before his Tar Heel opponent responded with a 6-4 featuring one break of serve. The last set would be a back and forth contest where each player would break their opponent, each would have match points and an extended tiebreak would go the way of North Carolina 7-6 (8).

At #3, Matt Che, who clinched the 4-3 victory over Michigan State earlier this week, won the opening set in a tiebreak before drop the next two sets, only getting broken once each set, and give North Carolina their fourth and final point. The remaining match on court #5 would end up unfinished with Addy Vashistha battling late in the second set.

Up Next:

Notre Dame continues a home stretch with two matches on Sunday, March 5th. First up at noon as ACC foe Duke who is coming off a 4-2 road win against Louisville. At 5 p.m., the Irish will host Northern Kentucky in the second match of the doubleheader.

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#37 Notre Dame 2 – #10 North Carolina 4

Doubles

  1. #47 Dominko/Fu(ND) vs. Cernoch/Kittay(UNC) 6-5 DNF
  2. Poling/Jansen(UNC) def. Che/Malkowski(ND) 6-2
  3. Kania/Murphy(UNC) def. Lee/Zhang(ND) 6-4

Order of Finish(2, 3)

Singles

  1. #72 Cernoch(UNC) def. #38 Dominko(ND) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8)
  2. #112 Jansen(UNC) def. Malkowski(ND) 6-4, 6-1
  3. Poling(UNC) def. Che(ND) 6-7, 6-4, 6-3
  4. Fu(ND) def. Watane(UNC) 6-2, 7-6
  5. Vashistha(ND) vs. Li(UNC) 6-7, 5-6 DNF
  6. Zhang(ND) def. Murphy(UNC) 6-2, 6-0

Order of Finish(2, 6, 4, 1, 3)