Jan. 22, 2000

The 22nd-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis beat 31st-ranked New Mexico 5-2 at the Ice Volleys late Saturday night to improve to 1-1 after losing to Washington in its first match of the Ice Volleys. The Irish swept the doubles and won four of six singles matches in the win. Sophomores Casey Smith, Javier Taborga and Aaron Talarico were doubles winners for Notre Dame, which returns to action at 40th-ranked Indiana on Sat., Jan. 29, at 1:00 p.m.

The 48th-ranked team of Taborga and Talarico beat New Mexico?s 14th-ranked Matt Amgwerd and Nicolas Dubey 8-5 at No. 1 doubles to pace the Irish in their sweep of the doubles. Sophomore James Malhame recorded his first career victory in a dual match when he and Smith beat Kyle Russell and Jens Weiss 8-5 at No. 3 doubles. Seniors Ryan Sachire and Trent Miller beat Andrew Irving and Takeshi Itoh 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.

The Irish swept through the middle of the singles lineup to for their fourth win over the Lobos in four meetings. Junior Matt Daly rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Dubey at No. 2 singles, while Smith downed Itoh 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3 singles. Taborga won a tight first set 7-6 (8-6) and then used a 6-1 second set to defeat Weiss at No. 4 singles. Talarico won his second singles match of the weekend with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Irving at No. 5 singles.

Tenth-ranked Amgwerd won the battle top 20 singles players with his 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win over Irish All-American and 14th-ranked Sachire at No. 1 singles. The Lobos other win came at No. 6 singles, when Irish sophomore Andrew Laflin lost a tight 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) to John Kowalski.

#22 NOTRE DAME 5, #31 NEW MEXICO 2

Singles

No. 1: #10 Matt Amgwerd (NW) def. #14 Ryan Sachire (ND) 6-4, 7-6(5)

No. 2: #65 Matt Daly (ND) def. Nicolas Dubey (NM) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

No. 3: Casey Smith (ND) def. Takeshi Itoh (NM) 6-3, 6-4

No. 4: Javier Taborga (ND) def. Jens Weiss (NM) 7-6 (6), 6-1

No. 5: Aaron Talarico (ND) def. Andrew Irving (NM) 6-2, 6-2

No. 6: John Kowalski (NM) def. Andrew Laflin (ND) 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5)

Doubles

No. 1: #48 Taborga/Talarico (ND) def. #14 Amgwerd/Dubey (NM) 8-5

No. 2: Trent Miller/Sachire (ND) def. Irving/Itoh (NM) 8-4

No. 3: James Malhame/Smith (ND) def. Kyle Russell/Weiss (NM) 8-5