March 23, 1999

• Notre Dame beats North Carolina, falls to Texas A&M, Tulane
• Patterson and Sachire move into doubles rankings

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 26th-ranked Notre Dame mens tennis team finished 1-2 at the Blue-Gray National Classic last week in Montgomery, Ala. The Irish return home to face second-ranked Illinois on Sat., March 27, at 1:00 p.m.

THIS WEEK FOR THE IRISH: The Irish welcome second-ranked Illinois to the Eck Tennis Pavilion in their only match of the week on Sat., March 27, at 1:00 p.m. The second-ranked Illini are the highest ranked opponent for the Irish since losing 6-0 to top-ranked Stanford in 1995 and the highest ranked team Notre Dame will play at home in the 12 years under head coach Bob Bayliss.

Four singles players are ranked in top 100, and two doubles teams are ranked in the top 10 for Illinois. Senior Oliver Freelove is ninth, junior Cary Franklin 55th, senior Gavin Sontag 82nd and junior Jeff Laski 88th. Laski and Sontag are 4th in doubles, while Franklin and Freelove are seventh.

Notre Dame leads the all-time series with Illinois 18-8 and has won 10 of the last 11 meetings, including five straight wins at home for the Irish in the series. Illinois beat Notre Dame last year for the first time since 1978 as the sixth-ranked Illini beat the 14th-ranked Irish 4-3 in Champaign.

IRISH FINISH 1-2 AT BLUE-GRAY CLASSIC: Runners-up in each of the last two years, Notre Dame opened the Blue-Gray National Classic with a 4-0 win over 58th-ranked North Carolina 4-0 on Thursday in the first round of the in Montgomery, Ala. The Irish started the match with wins at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles to take the doubles point. Brian Patterson (Falmouth, Maine) and Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) beat David Cheatwood and Aron Breziner 8-2 at No. 1, and Trent Miller (San Diego, Calif.) and Javier Taborga (LaPaz, Bolivia) clinched point with an 8-4 win over Mike Grose and Ben Elix at No. 2 singles. Sachire posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Grose at No. 1 singles, while Andy Warford (Bismarck, N.D.) beat Elix 6-1, 6-4 at No. 6 singles. Matt Daly (Wellesley, Mass.) won his team-leading fourth clinching match of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cheatwood at No. 3 singles.

Notre Dame dropped a 5-1 match to fourth-seeded and 19th-ranked Texas A&M in the second round on Friday. Sachire captured Notre Dames only point with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Shuon Madden at No. 1 singles. The Aggies won in straight sets at Nos. 3-6 singles to reach the semifinals. Laflin lost his first dual match at No. 4 singles as he fell 6-2, 6-2 to Keith From.

Texas A&M started the match by winning two of three doubles to win the point. Madden and From beat Sachire and Patterson 8-5 at No. 1 doubles. Cody Hubbell and Gonzalo Anderson clinched the point with an 8-4 win over Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and Warford at No. 3 doubles.

The Irish wrapped up their trip with a 4-1 loss to 30th-ranked Tulane on Saturday in the consolation round. The match saw five of the six singles matches extend into third sets. Sachire fell to 48th-ranked Robert Samuelsson 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Tulane also won at Nos. 4 and 5 singles after also winning the doubles point. Chris Ortner beat Irish freshman Casey Smith (Leawood, Calif.) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 at No. 4, and Mikko Viljanen beat Warford 6-4, 6-1 at No. 5 singles. Daly won the only point for Notre Dame as he rallied for a 2-6, 7-6, 6-0 win over Ronald Kloppert at No. 3 singles. Samuelsson and Kloppert beat Patterson and Sachire 8-1 at No. 1 doubles, and Dennis Lundberg and Viljanen beat Miller and Taborga 8-6 at No. 2 to claim the doubles point for Tulane.

DOUBLES ENTERS RANKINGS: Notre Dames No. 1 doubles team of Brian Patterson and Ryan Sachire have reentered the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings, which were released on March 22. The pair has compiled a 10-6 record in the spring and a 12-8 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.

SACHIRE REACHES CENTURY MARK: Ryan Sachires 6-3, 6-3 win over Miamis Jamin Thompson 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 102-29 (.779) record and a 31-6 record in 1999.

BAYLISS REACHES 500TH WIN: Irish head coach Bob Bayliss became the 11th active mens 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 225-101 (.690) record at Notre Dame and a career mark of 507-195 (.722), the sixth-best winning percentage among active mens 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.

IRISH STREAKS SNAPPED: The loss to Texas A&M ended Notre Dames seven-match winning streak, dating back to a 4-3 loss to Minnesota on Feb. 21. Ryan Sachire had not lost a singles match since Feb. 13, but Tulanes Thomas Samuelsson ended his 10-match singles winning streak. Freshman Andrew Laflin also lost for the first time in 1999 at the Blue-Gray Classic.

PATTERSON WINS EIGHT STRAIGHT: Senior captain Brian Patterson has not lost a singles match since dropping a 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 decision to Dukes Pedro Escudero on Feb. 13. Since that lost, Patterson, whose three singles matches at the Blue-Gray Invitational were abandoned with the matches already clinched, has won eight consecutive matches to improve his record to 14-6 and 12-2 in 1999 dual matches. His career singles record stands at 79-38 in his three-plus years at Notre Dame. A two-time NCAA doubles participant, Pattersons doubles record stands at 79-41. His singles record in dual matches is 60-29 for his career with a 32-7 mark since the beginning of his junior year.

SACHIRE SOLID AT NO. 2 RANKING: Ryan Sachire remains second in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, released by the ITA on March 22. Sachires No. 2 spot marks the highest ranking for an Irish singles player since David DiLucia finished the 1992 regular season as the No. 1 player in the country. Sachire, who is 31-6 in singles and 17-2 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 in the Feb. 16 ranking after winning the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships singles consolation. Since taking over the No. 2 spot behind Harvards James Blake, Sachire has compiled a 10-1 record.

LAFLIN SUFFERS FIRST ’99 LOSS: Irish freshman Andrew Laflin lost his first match of 1999 when Texas A&M’s Keith From beat Laflin 6-2, 6-2 on Friday. He entered that match with an 11-0 record after last losing in the third round of the ITA Region IV championship. The lefty won his first seven matches without dropping a set before winning in three sets against both Boise State and Ohio State. Laflin played at No. 5 singles in his first match of 1999 before winning five matches at No. 6 singles. Since first moving up to the No. 4 position in the Iowa match, Laflin has posted a 6-1 record. His overall singles record stands at 18-6, and he boasts a 15-0 record when he wins the first set. Of his 11 wins in 1999, three have clinched match wins for the Irish.

DALY ON A ROLL: Sophomore Matt Daly has won seven out of his last nine matches after starting off 1999 with a 2-3 record. Of the 10 matches Daly has won in ’99, four have clinched wins for the Irish. He entered the spring dual match season after compiling an 11-2 record in the fall, with one of the losses coming to teammate Casey Smith. His overall record of 21-8 includes an 18-0 mark in matches when he wins the first set.

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 54-12 with his 17-2 mark this year. Three of his wins have come against top 10 players. His overall singles record is 31-6 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 12 matches against ranked teams and two 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  102-29

Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings

Team Release: March 23, 1999

This  Last  School                    Avg.Rank  Rank1.     1.   UCLA                    53.212.     2.   Illinois *              49.613.     7.   Baylor                   36.64.     3.   Stanford                31.575.    10.   SMU                     31.276.     8.   Texas *                 31.257.     4.   Duke *                  30.488.   T17.   Florida                  27.59.    28.   Alabama                 25.2210.  T13.   USC                     25.1911.   11.   South Carolina          24.7812.  T13.   Arizona State           24.7413.    5.   Georgia                 23.7014.    6.   Mississippi             23.4515.    9.   Washington              22.8816.   16.   Harvard                 22.2217.   12.   Pepperdine              22.0818.  T17.   Mississippi State       20.7619.   34.   TCU                     20.4720.   15.   ennessee                18.1321.   19.   Texas A&M *             18.0022.   29.   Southwestern Louisiana  15.7423.  T22.   VCU                     14.4424.   53.   North Carolina State    13.0525.   41.   South Florida           12.2226.  T26.   Notre Dame              11.90
* indicates Notre Dame opponents

Other Notre Dame opponents

 29.  30.  Tulane  11.61 32.  21.  Kentucky    11.13 36. T24.  Minnesota   9.89 39. T43.  Michigan    8.77 44. T43.  Miami (Fla.)    7.32 47.  35.  Purdue  6.23  49.  63.  William & Mary  6.05 52.  33.  Northwestern    5.67 54. T55.  Boise State 5.22 58. T75.  Indiana 4.56T75.  58.  North Carolina  3.25

Singles Release: March 23, 1999

This  Last  Name                 SchoolRank  Rank  1.   1.   James Blake          Harvard  2.   2.   Ryan Sachire         Notre Dame  3.   5.   Ryan Wolters         Stanford  4.   3.   Robert Kendrick      Washington  5.   9.   Jeff Morrison        Florida  6.   7.   Esteban Carril       TCU  7.   6.   Francisco Rodriguez  Alabama  8.  11.   Jean-Noel Grinda     UCLA  9.   4.   Oliver Freelove      Illinois 10.  12.   Peter Handoyo        Tennessee 11.   8.   Hirsham Hemeda       Georgia 12.  10.   Ignacio Hirigoyen    SMU 13.  16.   Aaron Marchetti      Virginia Tech 14.  14.   Daniel Andersson     VCU 15.  13.   KJ Hippensteel       Stanford 16.  17.   Guillaume Legat      South Carolina 17.  48.   Robert Samuelsson    TulaneT18.  24.   Pawel Gajdzik        BaylorT18.  21.   Brian Vahaly         Virignia 20.  27.   Jack Brasington      Texas