NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s tennis team opened up the spring dual season with a pair of shutout victories over the Saint Louis Billikens Sunday afternoon at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
In the only round of doubles on the day, Aditya Vashistha and Jean-Marc Malkowski put a quick 6-0 victory on the board at #2 doubles. The Irish took the doubles point after the #1 doubles team of Peter Conklin and Connor Fu won 6-1.
In singles, Notre Dame would jump out to first set wins on every court. Freshman Brian Bilsey was first to complete his match with a dominate 6-0, 6-0 win at #6 singles in his collegiate dual match debut. Sophomore Malkowski would quickly follow with a 6-0, 6-3 win at #5 singles. Graduate student Conklin clinched the first Notre Dame dual win of the year with his win at #4 singles followed closely by classmate Vashistha at the top spot in the lineup. Juniors Fu and Matthew Che would complete the sweep of matches at their #3 and #2 spots respectively.
The second match of the day started with singles and was played to clinch. Freshman Jamie Corsillo saw his first career dual action and won 6-0, 6-0 at #6 singles. Fu and Conklin would also pickup quick victories to give the Irish a 3-0 lead. Vashistha got the 4th point with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win at #1 singles and Che finished at the same time so his victory at #3 singles made the final score 5-0. The Irish are now 2-0 on the year.
“It’s always exciting to get the season under way and the guys took advantage of the opportunity to get two team wins to start the year.” said Callaghan Family Tennis Head Coach Ryan Sachire, “I thought our focus and ability to play complete matches was a positive sign and we got value out of the day. We’re looking forward to building on that in just a couple days against a tough Western Michigan team.”
Next Up : Notre Dame will return to the Eck Tennis Pavilion to take on Western Michigan at 5 p.m. Wednesday January 19th. These two teams met twice last spring with the Irish handing the MAC Champion Broncos their only two losses of the year. The last meeting was a 4-1 first round victory in the NCAA tournament which would end the Broncos season with a 22-2 record.
Box Score : Match 1
Notre Dame 7 – St. Louis 0
Doubles
- Conklin/Fu (ND) def Alvarez/Behun (SLU) 6-1
- Malkowski/Vashistha (ND) def Ekindi/Badaiants (SLU) 6-0
- Che/Halpin (ND) vs Fukushima/Sadowski (SLU) 4-3 Did Not Finish
Singles
- Vashistha (ND) def Alvarez (SLU) 6-2,6-1
- Che (ND) def Fukushima (SLU) 6-1,7-6
- Fu (ND) def Behan (SLU) 6-1,6-3
- Conklin (ND) def Baddiants (SLU) 6-2,6-0
- Malkowski (ND) def Sadowski (SLU) 6-0,6-3
- Bilsey (ND) def Marri (SLU) 6-0,6-0
Order of finish: Doubles(2, 1); Singles (6, 5, 4, 1, 3, 2)
Box Score : Match 2
Notre Dame 5 – St. Louis 0
Singles
- Vashistha (ND) def Fukushima (SLU) 6-1,6-0
- Fu (ND) def Alvarez (SLU) 6-2,6-1
- Che (ND) def Behun (SLU) 6-4,6-0
- Conklin (ND) def Sadowski (SLU) 6-3,6-2
- Bilsey (ND) vs. Badaiants (SLU) 6-4,2-2 Did Not Finish
- Corsillo (ND) def Marri (SLU) 6-0,6-0
Order of finish: Singles (6, 2, 4, 1, 3)
**No Doubles Played