April 26, 2017
By Joanne Norell
ROME, Ga. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team will look to make a statement at this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, with the Irish slated to begin second-round action on Thursday against Louisville.
Match 26
WHAT: ACC Men’s Tennis Championship – Second Round
WHO: No. 10 seed Notre Dame (13-12, 4-8 ACC) vs. No. 7 seed Louisville (20-8, 6-6 ACC)
WHERE: Rome Tennis Center | Rome, Ga.
WHEN: 10 a.m. ET Thursday
WEB: ACC Championships Home Page | Bracket
On The Cardinals
- Louisville enters Thursday’s match with a 20-8 record, but has lost three of its last four, with all three losses coming against conference opponents. The Cardinals are ranked No. 43 in the latest Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s Tennis Rankings, just one spot ahead of the Irish.
- The Cardinals boast a ranked doubles pairing, No. 31 Parker Wynn and Sean Donohue, who re 17-7 at No. 1 doubles this season.
- In singles, the Cardinals are led in wins by Wynn, who is 23-4 playing at mostly No. 2 singles. Brandon Lancaster (18-8), Nicholas Rouanet (15-10), Clement Filho (13-8) and George Hedley (11-6) also boast winning dual records.
- Louisville and Notre Dame previously met on March 11 in Louisville, Kentucky, with the Cardinals edging out the Irish 4-3. After Louisville won the doubles point, the Irish won three of the first four singles decisions, but the Cardinals picked up the decisive final two points to ensure their victory.
- The Irish own a 12-10 advantage in the all-time series against Louisville.
Irish At The ACC Championship
Notre Dame has participated in three ACC Championship tournaments since joining the conference for the 2013-14 season, advancing as far as the semifinal in 2014, when the Irish fell to eventual champion Virginia. Last season, the seventh-seeded Irish advanced to the quarterfinal, where they fell in a razor-thin 4-3 decision to eventual champion Wake Forest.
Last Time Out
The Irish split their final two matches of the regular season, downing Clemson 6-1 on Friday and falling in a competitive 5-2 decision to No. 1 Wake Forest on Sunday. In the Wake Forest match, senior Josh Hagar claimed a pair of career-best wins, ultimately earning him ACC Player of the Week recognition. In doubles, he and fellow senior Eddy Covalschi downed No. 1 Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim, 7-5. Then in singles, the then-67th-ranked Hagar cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 3 Petros Chrysocos.
Rankings Rundown
Notre Dame re-entered the rankings this week, coming in at No. 44. The Irish also boast two players in the most recent Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s Tennis Rankings. Seniors Josh Hagar and Eddy Covalschi are ranked No. 32 in the most recent doubles rankings, having gone 21-10 on the season, including 11-7 in dual play this spring. Hagar comes in at No. 48 in this week’s singles rankings, jumping 19 spots after defeating No. 3 Petros Chrysocos of Wake Forest in straight sets on Sunday.
Keeping Up With The Irish
Live scoring will be available for all matches at the ACC Championships. Live match updates will also be shared on the team’s Twitter account, @NDMensTennis. The semifinal and final matches will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra and can be viewed on WatchESPN or the WatchESPN app.
—
For the latest on all things Irish men’s tennis, follow @NDMensTennis on Twitter and like Notre Dame Men’s Tennis on Facebook.
-ND-
Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, and earned her master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University in 2013.