SOUTH BEND, Ind. – To kick off a three match weekend at home, the Notre Dame men’s tennis team started with a sweep of Illinois.
The match started with a split of the top two doubles positions. Matt Che and Axel Nefve knocked off their 2nd ranked team in as many matches with a dominate 6-2 win over #57 ranked Horve and Heck. After Illinois would respond with a 6-4 win at #2 doubles that saw one break of serve as the difference, it came down to the #3 spot. New doubles combo Connor Fu and Jean-Marc Malkowski would come out ahead with a 7-5 victory to put the Irish up 1-0.
In singles, the Irish would grab four first sets and the upperclassmen would take care of business to seal the win. After a 6-4 first set, graduate student Peter Conklin would not relinquish a single game as he won the 2nd set 6-0 at the #5 position to give the Irish a quick 2-0 lead. Graduate student Addy Vashistha would take down Alex Brown at the #3 spot 7-5 6-2 to extend the lead before senior captain Nefve would finish off the Illini with a 6-3, 6-4 win over #63 Olivier Stuart.
Up Next:
With a short turnaround to the next one, the men’s team will host two more home matches tomorrow against Northwestern at 12pm and Chicago State at 5pm. The matches are at the Eck Tennis Pavilion and admission is free.
Box Score
Notre Dame 4 – Illinois 0
Doubles
- Che/Nefve(ND) def. #57 Heck/Horve(ILL) 6-2
- Brown/Guzauskas(ILL) def. Conklin/Halpin(ND) 6-4
- Fu/Malkowski(ND) def. Meister/Stuart(ILL) 7-5
Singles
- #81 Nefve(ND) def. #63 Stuart(ILL) 6-3, 6-4
- Che(ND) vs. Heck(ILL) 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 Did Not Finish
- Vashistha(ND) def. Brown(ILL) 7-5, 6-2
- Fu(ND) vs. Petrov(ILL) 6-4, 4-3 Did Not Finish
- Conklin(ND) def. Horve(ILL) 6-4, 6-0
- Malkowski(ND) vs. Guzauskas(ILL) 4-6, 3-4 Did Not Finish
Order of finish: Doubles(1, 2, 3); Singles (5, 3, 1)