Sept. 12, 2016
By Joanne Norell
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Another challenging schedule lies ahead for the 2016-17 University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team, beginning with a full slate of individual fall tournaments before launching into a dual season peppered with high quality opponents.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities that our team will have this season,” Callaghan Family Head Men’s Tennis Coach Ryan Sachire said. “We will use our fall tournaments to help each player grow and develop, and ultimately prepare for one of the most exciting dual-match schedules in all of college tennis.”
This fall, the Irish will compete in individual tournaments at Harvard (September 16-18), Notre Dame (October 7-9), Minnesota (November 4-6) and Cleveland State (November 4-6) in addition to the annual tournaments they will typically compete in each year: the ITA All-American Championships (October 1-10), ITA Midwest Regional Championships (Oct. 20-24) and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships (November 3-6). They have also scheduled a pair of ITF Futures events in Fountain Valley, California (September 23-October 2), and Birmingham, Alabama (October 28-November 6).
The Irish will return from the winter break and launch into a 23-match dual season, highlighted by 12 teams that competed in the 2016 NCAA Championship, and 14 that finished the year in the Oracle/ITA Men’s National Team Rankings.
Highlights of the Irish home schedule include a seven-match homestand comprising the entirety of February, which includes the Atlantic Coast Conference opener against Boston College (Feb. 11) and matches against the Big Ten’s Illinois (Feb. 12), Indiana (Feb. 19) and Northwestern (Feb. 24). The Irish will also travel to Big Ten power Ohio State (March 3) to close out the non-conference slate.
The Irish will also play host to Virginia (March 18), North Carolina State (March 31), Georgia Tech (April 2), Clemson (April 21) and Wake Forest (April 23). They travel to Louisville (March 11), Virginia Tech (March 24), Florida State (April 7), Miami (April 9), Duke (April 14) and North Carolina (April 16). It will be Notre Dame’s second matchup with the Tar Heels, as the two will also meet in a non-conference match in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on January 27.
The ACC Championship will once again take place at Cary Tennis Park in Cary, North Carolina, from April 26-30. The first round of the NCAA Championship will be played during the second weekend of May, with the Round of 16 through the team championship, as well as the individual championships, hosted by the University of Georgia at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.
— ND —
Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, and earned her master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University in 2013.