Irish Travel To Pacific Coast Doubles, Illinois

March 1, 2000

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NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The 32nd-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis team travels to the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship March 3-5, in La Jolla, Calif., before a dual match at 10th-ranked Illinois on Thurs., March 9. The Irish concluded their six-match homestand by defeating 61st-ranked Purdue 6-1 and then went on the road to beat Northwestern 6-1 last weekend.

UP NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame travels to La Jolla, Calif., and the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club for the 104th Pacific Coast Doubles Championship from Fri.-Sun., March 3-5. The tournament is open to professional, collegiate and top junior players, and Notre Dame will enter five doubles teams into the tournament. Senior Trent Miller (San Diego, Calif.) hails from nearby San Diego. The Irish will travel to Champaign, Ill., to take on the 10th-ranked Illini on Thurs., March 9, at 3:00 p.m. Illinois currently has a 5-2 record and is coming off a 13th-place finish at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships. It will play at third-ranked Duke on Sun., March 5, before playing host to the Irish. Notre Dame leads the all-time series with Illinois 18-8 and won 10 straight meetings from 1989-97. Illinois has won the last two matches, winning 4-3 at home in 1998 and 5-2 at Notre Dame in 1999. Irish freshman Brian Farrell (Lilburn, Ga.) and Illinois senior Cary Franklin both attended St. Pius X High School in Atlanta, Ga.

RECAPPING THE WEEK: Notre Dame’s two wins last week came in similar fashion as the Irish claimed the doubles point and won five singles matches to beat both visiting Purdue and host Northwestern 6-1. Irish seniors Trent Miller and Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) jumped out to a fast start at No. 2 doubles by dropping just one point in building a 3-0 lead they would never lose in their 8-3 win over Laith Al-Agba and Scott Mayer. Purdue tied the doubles at 1-1 when Carl McCafferty and Derek Miller beat sophomore James Malhame (Douglaston, N.Y.) and junior Ashok Raju (Morgantown, W.V.) 9-8 (7-1) at No. 3 doubles. The 53rd-ranked team of Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) and Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) then clinched the point by beating 50th-ranked Jason Marshall and Andrew Wakefield 8-6 at No. 1 doubles with a break of Marshall’s serve at 7-6. Sachire, Talarico and Laflin then gave Notre Dame a 4-0 lead with singles wins. The 17th-ranked Sachire opened his No. 1 singles match by winning the first seven games and the final three games of his 6-0, 6-4 win over 62nd-ranked Marshall. Talarico gave the Irish a 3-0 lead seconds later when he completed his 7-5, 6-0 win over McCafferty at No. 5 singles. Sophomore Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.) then sealed the victory by defeating Mayer 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6 singles for his fourth straight win. Sophomore Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) made it 5-0 when he beat Al-Agba 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 singles. Junior Matt Daly (Wellesley, Mass.) closed out the 6-1 win by beating Derek Miller, brother of Irish senior Trent Miller, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. Against Northwestern Miller and Sachire won quickly once again at No. 2 doubles with an 8-3 win over Jackie Jenkins and Russell Bennett. Malhame and Smith then clinched the point by beating Josh Axler and Jamie Sahara 8-6 at No. 3 doubles. Taborga and Talarico completed the sweep with a 9-8 (7-1) victory at No. 1 doubles against Brad Erickson and Joost Hol. Sachire, Smith and Laflin then gave Notre Dame a 4-0 lead with singles wins. Sachire defeated Erickson 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 singles to improve to 22-6 in singles. Smith then posted a 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 victory over Jenkins at No. 3 singles. Laflin won the fourth Irish point by rallying to down Sahara 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Daly defeated Hol 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, and freshman Brian Farrell won 6-4, 6-1 against Bennett at No. 6 singles in the second group of singles, as the match was contested on three courts.

SACHIRE CONTINUES STREAK: Senior All-American Ryan Sachire enters the weekend without the loss of a set in his last six singles matches since losing to eventual champion Daniel Andersson of VCU in the quarterfinals of the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. The Irish captain’s record stands at 22-6, and he has won 32 of his last 37 dual singles matches at No. 1 singles. His career record stands at 130-39, while his record in dual singles matches is 69-15. He has a 5-0 record in three-set matches this year and a 19-0 mark when winning the first set.

LAFLIN CLINCHES WINS: Sophomore Andrew Laflin has won the clinching singles matches in four of Notre Dame’s seven wins during the spring season, including both decisive matches last weekend against Purdue and Northwestern. He also won decisive matches in the 4-3 win over Ohio State and against Michigan State. Laflin — who won 11 consecutive matches at the start of the 1999 dual match season — finds himself beginning a similar streak a year later after five consecutive victories. After losing a match tiebreaker to decide the third set against Kentucky’s Gustav Pousette, Laflin has posted wins over Ohio State and Wisconsin before recording Notre Dame’s only 6-0, 6-0 win this season against Miami’s Mark Arrowsmith. Laflin extended his streak with wins against Purdue and Northwestern. His record of 14-8 includes wins in the fall over USC’s Nicholas Rainey and Wisconsin’s Danny Westerman and Scott Rutherford.

DALY RETURNS: After a three-week absence due to an injury, junior Matt Daly has posted a 2-1 record in his return to his spot in the lineup at No. 2 singles. He lost his first match back against Miami (Fla.) but has rebounded to beat Purdue’s Derek Miller and Northwestern’s Joost Hol in his last two matches to move his record to 8-5, after a 5-2 fall season in which he posted a win over USC’s 34th-ranked Patrick Gottesleben.

TABORGA, TALARICO PERFECT VS. RANKED OPPONENTS: Sophomores Javier Taborga and Aaron Talarico — currently ranked a season-high 31st — posted wins over two more ranked opponents last weekend to bring their record against ranked foes to 6-0. The Irish duo defeated Purdue’s 50th-ranked Jason Marshall and Andrew Wakefield and then downed Northwestern’s 44th-ranked Brad Erickson and Joost Hol to up their record to 12-5. The pair has won six of eight matches in 2000, with three of the wins coming over ranked teams, including an 8-5 win over the 14th-ranked team of Matt Amgwerd and Nic Dubey from New Mexico in January. Taborga and Talarico played just six matches together as freshmen and went 3-3. They beat Baylor’s David Hodge and Johan Jooste — who were ranked 11th at the time — in their first match together last season.

FARRELL FILLS IN: Freshman Brian Farrell, after a 5-1 record in the fall, has subbed in and out of the dual-match singles lineup in 2000 and compiled a 4-1 record at No. 6 singles. In his second appearance with the Irish leading 18th-ranked Kentucky 3-0 but with the three other singles matches to be decided in third sets, Farrell abruptly ended any suspense about the outcome of the match with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Reven Stephens at No. 6 singles. After losing a match point on Stephens’ serve at 5-6, Farrell calmly rolled to a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker. His record in tiebreaker stands at a team-leading 6-0 in the 11 matches he has played.

ITA RANKINGS: The Irish stand 32nd among the 75 teams ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association after finishing 1999 ranked 31st. Senior All-American Ryan Sachire is ranked ninth in singles, up from 17th. Sophomores Javier Taborga and Aaron Talarico are ranked 31st in doubles.

MALHAME JOINS CLASSMATES: James Malhame has joined his fellow classmates in taking his place in Notre Dame’s sophomore-dominated lineup. He has played at No. 3 doubles in eight of ten dual matches in 2000 with both Casey Smith and Ashok Raju. Malhame and Smith have a 4-3 record in 2000, highlighted by an 8-5 win over Edo Bawono and Johan Grunditz to clinch the doubles point against Kentucky. He and Raju have played once in 2000, losing a tiebreaker against Purdue.

2000 IRISH SLATE: After matches against eight ranked teams to open the season, the Irish are scheduled to meet at least six more ranked teams, including matches at third-ranked Duke, 10th-ranked Illinois and 12th-ranked Texas. Notre Dame also will make its annual trip to Montgomery, Ala., for the prestigious Blue-Gray Classic. Notre Dame will defend its 1999 BIG EAST championship April 20-23, at Miami.

HEAD COACH BOB BAYLISS: Irish head coach Bob Bayliss is in his 13th year as head coach of the Irish, compiling a 238-106 (.692) record at Notre Dame and a career mark of 521-200 (.723), the fifth-best winning percentage among active men’s coaches. Bayliss became the 11th active men’s tennis coach to record 500 career wins on Feb. 20, 1999. He has guided the Irish to NCAA championship appearances in each of the last nine 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 six-time conference coach of year has coached his players to 13 All-America honors in his 12 years at Notre Dame, with senior Ryan Sachire his latest All-American.

IRISH INK HADDOCK: Luis Haddock, ranked 20th by the United States Tennis Association among 18-and-under boys, has signed a national letter of intent to attend Notre Dame in the fall of 2000. The Caguas, Puerto Rico, native also was ranked third in the country last year in doubles. Haddock looks to become the second men’s tennis monogram winner to come to Notre Dame from Puerto Rico. Pedro Rossell^~, the current governor of Puerto Rico, played for the Irish from 1963-66, captaining the ’66 team that finished 15-0. Haddock is a senior at Colegio Cat^~lico Notre Dame, where he is ranked first in his class with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average.

Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings

Team Release: Feb. 23, 2000

Other Notre Dame opponents

2000 Team Information
Starters Returning

Monogram Winners Ret./Lost
7/2

1999-2000 Captain
Ryan Sachire

1998-99 Record
17-8

1999 BIG EAST Championship 3-0, champion
Notre Dame 4, Rutgers 0
Notre Dame 4, Boston College 0
Notre Dame 4, Miami 3

1999 NCAA Championship
0-1, first round
Harvard 4, Notre Dame 2