Sept. 15, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – For the second consecutive season, an arduous spring schedule awaits the University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team as it enters its second season of competition in the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference.
Second-year head coach Ryan Sachire’s squad will face 16 squads that finished last season ranked in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll, as well as 18 teams that made the 2014 NCAA Championship as part of a 22-match dual schedule.
Notre Dame will play host to 14 foes at the Eck Tennis Pavilion or the Courtney Tennis Center, among which include ACC rival Virginia, which advanced to last season’s NCAA Championship semifinals. Additionally, seven other squads that concluded last season in the final ITA rankings will travel to Notre Dame this season: No. 11 Illinois, No. 22 Clemson, No. 25 Oklahoma State, No. 26 NC State, No. 30 Wake Forest, No. 33 Northwestern and No. 41 Texas Tech.
Road contests against ranked foes include No. 5 Ohio State, No. 12 Kentucky, No. 14 Duke, No. 37 Florida State, No. 38 Virginia Tech, No. 39 Michigan, No. 40 Louisville and No. 55 Miami.
The Irish opens the spring portion of the schedule at the Morgan Run Hidden Duals in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (Jan. 9-11), before participating in their first non-conference dual match of the season against the Wildcats in Lexington, Ky., Jan. 17.
Notre Dame opens ACC play against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., March 6, and concludes conference play with a home match against the NC State Wolfpack April 19. From there, the team will travel to Cary, N.C., for the ACC Championship (April 23-26).
Following the ACC Championship, the Irish hope to be among 64 teams that qualify for the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame has qualified for the NCAA Championship in 23 of the last 24 seasons.
The official beginning of Notre Dame’s 2014 fall season will occur at the Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill., Sept. 19-21. The Irish hope to end the fall slate with a bang at the Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 16-20.
The Irish are coming off a spectacular 2013-14 season where they finished 21-10, reached a high ranking of No. 6 on Feb. 25, advanced to the third round of the NCAA Championship and had two players qualify for the NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships.
Eleven monogram winners return for the Irish, including preseason No. 88 singles player Quentin Monaghan and preseason No. 27 doubles competitors Alex Lawson and Billy Pecor.
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