Feb. 5, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team will continue its three-match stretch against top opponents when the No. 19 Irish welcome No. 8 Stanford and No. 3 Ohio State to the Eck Tennis Pavilion this weekend.
Notre Dame will host a rare home match against the Cardinal (2-0) on Friday, while they take on the Buckeyes (3-0) on Sunday to wrap the weekend. The Irish are coming off a loss to No. 15 Michigan, but a loss in which head coach Jay Louderback thought the Irish competed well.
“We were definitely in the match,” Louderback said. “Jane Fennelly had a good win at No. 6 (singles) and we had two three-set matches. Our freshman, Allie Miller, was up in both sets, so we were right there with them early. I really felt like we played well last weekend.”
Stanford, like Michigan, boasts three players recognized in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s singles rankings, with No. 4 Carol Zhao, No. 12 Taylor Davidson and No. 13 Caroline Doyle occupying slots 1-3 in the Cardinal singles lineup. They also have a pair of doubles squads in the top 15: No. 6 Zhao and Davidson and No. 12 Doyle and Ellen Tsay.
The Buckeyes have two players in the singles top 100, with No. 71 Olivia Sneed and No. 86 Anna Sanford, and a top 30 doubles pair in No. 26 Gabriella De Santis and Sandy Niehaus. Ohio State is coming off a win over No. 27 Arizona State and Louderback called this Buckeyes team Ohio State’s best since he’s been at Notre Dame.
The Irish are 0-3 against ranked singles players this season, and 1-1 against ranked doubles foes. In last week’s 2-5 loss to No. 15 Michigan, 16th-ranked doubles partners Quinn Gleason and Monica Robinson defeated 10th-ranked Emina Bektas and Alex Najarian.
“It’s going to be a good weekend,” Louderback said. “The thing that’s great for us, too, is getting both of those teams here on our court. We feel like Stanford coming in here, they don’t play a lot of indoor tennis and they’re going to have to come here and play us indoors, which is good. I felt like the intensity we had last week in the singles and doubles was great. We’ve got to carry that over this week against both teams.”
Notre Dame and Stanford will square off at 5 p.m. ET on Friday at the Eck Tennis Pavilion, then take on Ohio State at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday. The Cardinal and Buckeyes will play each other on Saturday. Live stats for both matches will be available (; ), and both matches will stream on WatchND.
By Joanne Norell, Media Relations Assistant
-ND-