April 20, 1999
* Patterson finishes 12-0 against Midwest opponents in ’99 dual matches
* Sachire ranked in singles and doubles for third straight poll
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 31st-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis team closed out its 1999 dual-match regular season with a 6-1 win over 43rd-ranked Michigan on Wed., April 14. The Irish return to the courts at the 1999 BIG EAST championship, held April 22-25, at the University of Miami.
BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW: Notre Dame will be making its fourth appearance at the BIG EAST championship after winning in 1996 and finishing second to Miami in 1997 and 1998. The 31st-ranked Irish have earned the top seed of the 11 teams in the tournament for the fourth straight year. Miami, currently ranked 52nd in the country with an 8-11 record following a 6-1 loss at seventh-ranked Georgia, is seeded second. Third-seeded St. John’s, fourth-seeded West Virginia and fifth-seeded Rutgers round out the top five seeds, all of which receive first-round byes. The Irish will play their first match on Fri., April 23, against the winner of Thursday’s match between eighth-seeded Boston College and ninth-seeded Georgetown.
In 1998, the top-seeded Irish blanked both eighth-seeded Georgetown and fourth-seeded West Virginia 4-0 before second-seeded Miami beat Notre Dame 4-1 in the championship match. The Hurricanes won at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles and at Nos. 1, 4 and 5 singles for the win. In 1997, the top-seeded Irish blanked both eighth-seeded Connecticut and fourth-seeded Rutgers 4-0 before falling to second-seeded Miami in the championship match. Notre Dame won the doubles point before losing at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 singles. In their first appearance in 1996, the Irish did not drop a match in beating eighth-seeded Boston College, fifth-seeded Rutgers and second-seeded Miami 4-0 to claim the title.
The Irish will be making their second trip this season to the Neil Schiff Tennis Complex in Coral Gables, Fla. Notre Dame traveled to Miami over spring break and beat the Hurricanes 5-2 on March 11. The Irish won the doubles point and won four of the six singles for the win.
IRISH SNAP MICHIGAN’S WINNING STREAK: Notre Dame swept the doubles and won the first five singles matches to snap 43rd-ranked Michigan’s 11-match winning streak with its 10th win in 11 meetings with the Wolverines in the ’90s. Irish senior captain Brian Patterson (Falmouth, Maine), playing in last home match, rallied to beat Michigan senior William Farah 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles to clinch the match and improve to 12-0 against Region IV opponents in ’99 dual matches. Notre Dame opened the match with wins at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles to clinch the doubles point. The 47th-ranked pair of Patterson and Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) beat Danny McCain and Matt Wright 8-3 at No. 1 doubles for the first win. Freshmen Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) and Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) won seven of the last eight games to clinch the point with an 8-4 win over John Long and Jake Raiton at No. 3 doubles after the Wolverine pair had an early 3-1 lead.
Second-ranked Sachire gave the Irish a 2-0 lead and improved to 34-7 and 20-3 in dual matches with a quick 6-2, 6-2 win over Wright at No. 1 singles. Freshman Ben Cox used service breaks at 5-4 of each set to win Michigan’s only match of the day by beating Irish senior Andy Warford (Bismarck, N.D.) 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6 singles. Notre Dame’s Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.) then beat McCain 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 singles in a battle of freshmen for a 3-1 Irish lead.
After Patterson clinched the win, the Irish won the final two matches for the 6-1 final. Smith won another freshman battle at No. 5 singles with his 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win over Henry Beam. Notre Dame sophomore Matt Daly (Wellesley, Mass.) won the final four games of the match to rally from a break of serve down in the third set for a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over Long at No. 3 singles.
IRISH AT THE BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: Only four members of the current Notre Dame men’s tennis team have completed a match at the BIG EAST championships and only one has won more than one singles match. In three previous appearances at the BIG EAST championship, Brian Patterson has compiled a 5-0 singles record and a 7-1 mark in doubles. Ryan Sachire has a 1-2 singles record after dropping championship round singles matches to Miami in both 1997 and 1998 and has a 4-1 mark in doubles, while junior Matt Horsley (Lisle, Ill.) is 1-1 in both singles and doubles. Junior Trent Miller (San Diego, Calif.) has a 1-0 record in doubles.
PATTERSON TOPS AT NO. 2 IN REGION: Senior captain Brian Patterson, who has won 12 consecutive singles matches, completed the regular season with wins against every Region IV opponent at No. 2 singles. He has cruised to a 12-0 record against other Midwest opponents in ’99, dropping just three sets against regional opponents, including a straight-set win over Illinois’ 55th-ranked Cary Franklin. Patterson has not lost a singles match since falling 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 to Duke’s Pedro Escudero on Feb. 13. Since that lost, Patterson has won 12 consecutive matches to improve his record to 18-6 and 16-2 in 1999 dual matches. His only other dual match loss in 1999 came in three sets at the hands Texas’ Brandon Hawk, currently ranked 36th.
SACHIRE SOLID IN SINGLES: Ryan Sachire slipped to third in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, released by the ITA on April 20, after taking over the No. 2 spot on Feb. 18. Sachire’s No. 2 ranking marked the highest for an Irish singles player since David DiLucia finished the 1992 regular season as the No. 1 player in the country. Sachire, who is 34-7 in singles and 20-3 in dual matches in ’99, entered the 1998 fall season ranked No. 8 in the preseason but vaulted five spots to three based on his fall performance. His jump from three to two came after winning the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships singles consolation. While at the No. 2 spot behind Harvard’s James Blake, Sachire compiled a 13-2 record.
WARFORD WINS KANALEY AWARD: Irish senior captain Andy Warford has been named one of five recipients of the Byron V. Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor awarded to Notre Dame senior student-athletes who have been exemplary both as students and leaders. Warford is just the seventh player in the 77-year history of Notre Dame men’s tennis to win a Kanaley Award, which have been presented each year since 1927, and the first men’s tennis recipient since ’93. He is the fourth men’s tennis player to win a Kanaley award under 12th-year head coach Bob Bayliss and the fourth in the 1990s (Ryan Wenger – 1991, David DiLucia – 1992, Andy Zurcher – 1993). Warford, who has a 12-17 singles record this year and a 7-3 mark at No. 6 singles, currently boasts a 3.806 cumulative-grade point average as a finance major in the College of Business Administration.
DOUBLES IN THE RANKINGS: Notre Dame’s No. 1 doubles team of Brian Patterson and Ryan Sachire reentered the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings on March 22 at No. 43 and now stands 50th in the latest poll released on April 20. The pair has compiled a 13-7 record in the spring and a 20-9 overall record with two wins against ranked teams. Patterson and Sachire were ranked 28th in the preseason but played in just one tournament in the fall and fell out of the rankings.
PATTERSON JOINS RARE 80-80 CLUB: Brian Patterson’s win with Ryan Sachire over Purdue’s Laith Al-Agba and Derek Myers at No. 1 doubles on April 5, marked his 80th career doubles victory which, along with his 83-38 career singles record, makes him the only Notre Dame player under 12th-year head coach Bob Bayliss to win at least 80 singles and 80 doubles matches. His doubles wins are second only to his former three-year doubles partner Jakub Pietrowski, who won 95 doubles matches at Notre Dame before graduating in 1998. A two-time NCAA doubles participant with Pietrowski, Patterson’s doubles record stands at 82-42.
SACHIRE REACHES CENTURY MARK: Ryan Sachire’s 6-3, 6-3 win over Miami’s Jamin Thompson on March 11 marked his 100th career singles win at Notre Dame, becoming the first Irish junior to reach 100 wins since former All-American and No. 1 nationally-ranked collegiate singles player David DiLucia reached the century mark as a junior in 1991. DiLucia ended his career by leading the Irish to the 1992 NCAA championship title match with a 146-33 career record. Sachire currently has a 105-30 (.778) record and a 34-7 record in 1999.
BAYLISS REACHES 500TH WIN: Irish head coach Bob Bayliss became the 11th active men’s tennis coach to record his 500th career win with a 7-0 win over Northwestern on Feb. 20. Bayliss is in his 12th year as head coach of the Irish, compiling a 228-102 (.691) record at Notre Dame and a career mark of 510-196 (.722), the sixth-best winning percentage among active men’s coaches. He has guided the Irish to NCAA championship appearances in each of the last eight years, including an NCAA second-place finish in 1992. The Richmond, Va., native, and 1966 graduate of Richmond has been named ITA national coach of the year in 1992 and ITA regional coach of the year three times. The five-time conference coach of year has coached his players to 12 All-America honors in his 11 years at Notre Dame, with junior Ryan Sachire his latest All-American.
DALY ON A ROLL: Sophomore Matt Daly has won nine out of his last 13 matches after starting off 1999 with a 3-4 record. Of the 12 matches Daly has won in ’99, four have clinched wins for the Irish. His most recent win came in a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over Michigan’s John Long at No. 3 singles. His last win before the Michigan win came against Purdue’s 61st-ranked Jason Marshall 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-1 at No. 3 singles when he knotted the match at 3-3 after the Irish trailed 3-0. Daly sports a 23-10 overall record after entering the spring dual match season with an 11-2 record in the fall, with one of the losses coming to teammate Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.).
SACHIRE CONTINUES DUAL MATCH SUCCESS: Ryan Sachire entered his junior year with a 37-10 dual match record in his first two years and has improved that mark to 57-13 (.814) with his 20-3 mark this year. Three of his wins have come against top 10 players. His overall singles record is 34-7 this year with 17 wins against ranked opponents.
SACHIRE WINS ROLEX CONSOLATION SINGLES: Ryan Sachire rallied from a first-round loss to win the singles consolation draw at the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the third leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association collegiate grand slam. After Virginia Tech’s 23rd-ranked Adam Marchetti bounced the third-seeded Sachire 7-5, 6-3 in the first round, Sachire won four straight matches to win the consolation singles.
Sachire’s latest grand slam success comes after he advanced to the final of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships Oct. 15-18, 1998, in Austin, Texas, the second of the four ITA collegiate grand slam events, before losing 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) to Harvard’s James Blake, currently the No. 1 player in the country. Sachire became just the second Notre Dame men’s tennis player to reach the final of a collegiate grand slam, joining David DiLucia in 1992.
IRISH FACE TOUGH SLATE: The Irish have played 15 matches against ranked teams and three matches against top 10 teams already in 1999. In all, Notre Dame will play at least 15 matches against ranked teams in 1999, including seven ranked teams at home.
Irish Singles Wins
Ryan Sachire, currently ranked second in the country in singles, recently moved into fifth place in singles wins among Notre Dame players under current Irish head coach Bob Bayliss (1988-99). Here is where Sachire compares to other Bayliss-coached Notre Dame players:
Name Years Singles1. David DiLucia 1989-92 146-332. Andy Zurcher 1990-94 128-603. Chuck Coleman 1990-93 123-584. Mark Schmidt 1990-93 113-445. Ryan Sachire 1996-99 105-30
Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings
Team Release: April 20, 1999 This Last School Avg.Rank Rank 1. 1. UCLA 62.17 2. 2. Illinois * 50.00 3. 7. Duke * 48.45 4. 14. Mississippi 46.67 5. 7. Georgia 45.11 6. 19. Florida 44.21 7. 5. Texas * 40.35 8. 6. SMU 40.00 9. 8. Baylor 39.1610. 9. Stanford 38.1711. 11. USC 34.1012. 12. Tennessee 32.0613. 20. LSU 30.6514. 14. Arizona State 28.1615. 17. Pepperdine 26.1716. 16. TCU 26.1117. 23. Harvard 25.7518. 13. Kentucky * 25.7319. 19. South Carolina 25.0520. 18. Alabama 23.7621. 27. VCU 21.7622. 21. Texas A&M * 21.3423. 15. Washington 20.9924. 26. Tulane * 19.4825. 22. Mississippi State 19.3333. 26. Notre Dame 9.80
* indicates Notre Dame opponents
Other Notre Dame opponents
30. 43. Michigan 12.8235. 39. Minnesota 10.4138. 38. Boise State 9.9239. 34. Northwestern 9.7242. 41. Purdue 8.7945. 47. William & Mary 8.1548. 49. Indiana 7.5452. 44. Miami (Fla.) 7.1769. NR Michigan State 4.3272. 74. North Carolina 4.14
Singles Release: April 20, 1999This Last Name SchoolRank Rank 1. 1. James Blake Harvard 2. 3. Jeff Morrison Florida 3. 2. Ryan Sachire Notre Dame 4. 11. Jean-Noel Grinda UCLA 5. 7. Hirsham Hemeda Georgia 6. 10. Esteban Carril TCU 7. 9. Robert Kendrick Washington 8. 5. Francisco Rodriguez Alabama 9. 4. Ryan Wolters Stanford10. 8. Oliver Freelove Illinois11. 6. Ignacio Hirigoyen SMU12. 13. Robert Samuelsson Tulane13. 12. Peter Handoyo Tennessee14. 17. Brian Vahaly Virignia15. 14. Aaron Marchetti Virginia Tech16. 16. Daniel Andersson VCU17. 20. Jack Brasington Texas18. 32. Chad Carlson Georgia19. 31. Asaf Tishler UNLV20. 34. Shuon Madden Texas A&M