Senior women's tennis player Kristen Rafael

Irish Prepare To Play Host To Eck Tennis Classic

Sept. 30, 2010

Eck Tennis Classic Brackets Get Acrobat Reader

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team is set to play host to the Eck Tennis Classic at the Courtney Tennis Center and Eck Tennis Pavilion from Fri.-Sun., Oct. 1-3. Each day’s action is scheduled to get underway at 9 a.m. (ET).

The field features seven teams from around the Midwest (Akron, Dayton, Kansas, Miami (OH), Notre Dame, Ohio State), as well as Tulsa. The Eck Classic is set to play out three 16-player singles brackets – labeled as the blue, gold and green draws – as well as three eight-team doubles brackets, also separated into blue, gold and green.

For Notre Dame, the tournament looks to serve as an experience-building event as the team welcomes four freshmen to the roster. Each member of the freshman class is slated to compete in the tournament in an effort to prepare them for the dual season in the spring season.

“We are excited to have our freshmen play their first college matches at home,” states 22nd-year Irish head coach Jay Louderback. “We have been practicing for a while and are ready to play against some other teams. We have been beating up on each other for a few weeks. We will be able to gauge where we are this early from our results this weekend.”

Not competing this weekend for the Irish is the pair of Kristy Frilling and Shannon Mathews, as the two prepare to take part in qualifying for the National Indoor Invitational beginning Oct. 7-10.

The format of the Eck Tennis Classic is tentatively scheduled to see two rounds of singles and one round of doubles played on Friday.

Saturday will feature one round of singles with two or three rounds of doubles taking place, while Sunday will see each competitor take part in one singles and doubles match. Admission to all three day’s of competition is free of charge.

Be sure to check back with und.com for a recap of the Irish from the Eck Tennis Classic following each round of play, as well as an updated bracket posted on the women’s tennis home page sidebar.

–ND–