May 20, 2001
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Notre Dame All-American women’s tennis player Michelle Dasso (Long Grove, Ill./Stevenson HS) has been named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Senior Player of the Year, it was announced on Sunday at the ITA awards banquet in Stone Mountain, Ga. The third-ranked Dasso compiled a 20-4 record this season at No. 1 singles and put together a 21-match winning streak and a 24-3 record at No. 1 doubles with junior Becky Varnum in leading Notre Dame to the NCAA round of 16 for the second consecutive year. She will leave Notre Dame with career school records for singles wins (136), doubles wins (108) and combined victories (244).
Dasso becomes the first Irish women’s tennis player to win the award, and her selection marks the second consecutive year a Notre Dame tennis player has been named ITA nation senior player of the year. Men’s tennis All-American Ryan Sachire received the honor last year.
“This is a well-deserved honor for Michelle,” said Irish head coach Jay Louderback. “To come into college not as one of the highest-ranked juniors and then to be named the top senior shows how hard she has worked for four years.”
Dasso opened the season by reaching the final at the opening leg of the ITA Grand Slam, the T. Rowe Price National Clay Court Championships, and advanced to the quarterfinals at the second grand slam, the Riviera All-American Championships. She reached both the singles and doubles semifinals of the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the third leg of the ITA Grand Slam.
Dasso begins in the final grand slam event in her fourth NCAA singles tournament. Seeded fourth in the 64-player draw, she will meet North Carolina’s 14th-ranked Marlene Mejia in the first round at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday at the Lincoln Tennis Center in Stone Mountain, Ga.
The seventh-ranked doubles team of Dasso and Varnum have earned a No. 5-8 seed in the 32-team doubles draw and will face Old Dominion’s 49th-ranked Nataly Cahana and Ana Radeljevic in the first round. By virtue of being named seeds in the singles and doubles draw, Dasso and Varnum earn ITA All-America honors, the third and fourth All-America honors for Dasso — also a singles and doubles All-American in 1999 — and the first for Varnum. Dasso’s four All-America citations mark the most for an Irish player under 12th-year head coach Louderback.