Jan. 29, 2000

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The 22nd-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis dropped the doubles point and then loss to three of six singles match to fall 4-3 to 40th-ranked host Indiana on Saturday. The Irish fall to 1-2 with the loss, their first to the Hoosiers since 1991 after eight consecutive wins. Notre Dame returns to action next weekend at the Rolex National Indoor Championships in Dallas, Texas, the third leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association collegiate grand slam.

Indiana claimed the doubles point with an 8-6 win at No. 1 doubles and a 9-8 (7-2) at No. 2 in the decisive match after Irish sophomores James Malhame and Casey Smith won 8-2 at No. 3 doubles. In singles, the Hoosiers used wins at Nos. 2, 3 and 5 singles for the 4-3 victory. Senior All-American Ryan Sachire and sophomores Javier Taborga and Andrew Lafin won Notre Dame’s three singles matches.

#40 INDIANA 4, #22 NOTRE DAME 3

Singles

No. 1: #14 Ryan Sachire (ND) def. #84 Milan Rakvica (IU) 6-1, 6-4

No. 2: Ian Arons (IU) def. #65 Matt Daly (ND) 6-4, 7-5

No. 3: Gabriel Montilla (IU) def. Casey Smith (ND) 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5)

No. 4: Javier Taborga (ND) def. Paul Jacobson 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7)

No. 5: Rahman Smiley (IU) def. Aaron Talarico (ND) 6-4, 6-4

No. 6: Andrew Laflin (ND) def. Ari Widlansky (IU) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles

No. 1: Arons/Montilla (IU) def. #48 Taborga/Talarico (ND) 8-6

No. 2: #47 Rakvica/Smiley (IU) def. Trent Miller/Sachire (ND) 9-8 (7-2)

No. 3: James Malhame/Smith (ND) def. Jacobson/ Widlansky (IU) 8-2