Jan. 28, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team is set to play host to a qualifying pod for the 2011 ITA National Team Indoor Championships at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. (ET) on Saturday and Sunday at the Eck Tennis Center. Arkansas, Utah and Yale will travel in to take on the host Irish.
Saturday’s action kicks off with No. 23 Arkansas taking on No. 41 Utah at 9 a.m. with the Irish taking on the Yale Bulldogs in the afternoon match at 1 p.m. Sunday sees the losers of each of the first two match-ups facing off in the consolation match at 9 a.m. with the two victorious teams squaring off for the championship at 1 p.m. The winner also advances into the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, Feb. 18-21 in Charlottesville, Va.
Notre Dame enters weekend play with a 1-0 record after a decisive 5-2 victory at 25th-ranked Illinois last Saturday. The Irish come into the draw as the fourth-ranked team in the nation and the No. 1 overall seed in the pod. Kristy Frilling leads the Irish in the rankings, entering this weekend as the ninth ranked singles player in the nation.
Notre Dame enjoys a 3-1 all-time record versus Yale, including a perfect 3-0 mark under current Irish head coach Jay Louderback. The last time the two teams met, Notre Dame stormed to a 9-0 victory in 2000. The Irish sit at 1-1 all-time against Arkansas and 1-2 against Utah, with the Irish having won the most recent match-up against each team – 4-1 against Arkansas in ’09 and 7-0 against Utah in ’09.
Yale enters the tournament with a 3-0 record after posting victories over Buffalo (7-0), Boston College (6-1) and Boston University (7-0). They are led by sophomore Elizabeth Epstein, who enters the tournament as the 65th-ranked singles player in the nation.
Arkansas also enters this weekend’s festivities with an unblemished record (2-0) after a pair of victories over North Texas (7-0) and Texas A&M (6-1). The tandem of Kate Lukomskaya and Kelsey Sundaram enter as the 35th-ranked doubles team, while Anouk Tigu leads the Razorbacks on the singles side, ranked 36th in the nation.
Evgenia Kryuchkova (No. 60), Anastasia Putilina (No. 82) and the Utah Utes enter the tournament with an 0-1 record after dropping a 6-1 decision to Washington in its dual campaign opener. Putilina along with Paige Miles also find themselves in the ITA rankings as the 49th-best doubles duo.
For full coverage of this weekend’s matches be sure to check out the tournament central page at http://www.und.com/sports/w-tennis/spec-rel/11-w-tennis-ita-central.html . Results of each of the four matches as well as a complete recap and live blog of each of Notre Dame’s contests can be accessed from this site.
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