Brooke Broda

Silverio Era Debuts At TCU

Head coach Alison Silverio will lead the University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team for the first time this weekend as the Irish compete in the Big 5 Challenge, hosted by TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas.

The Irish will compete with Virginia, Georgia, Texas A&M, Arizona, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Texas Tech, Auburn, Kansas State, Arizona State and Kansas in a set of six individual and three doubles tournaments. Notre Dame is currently scheduled to take the court at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 20 and 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 21, however impending rain in the Metroplex may cause alterations to the schedule. The expected severe weather has prevented the Saturday and Sunday schedule from being set at this point.

Silverio is in her first season at the helm of the Irish program, coming to Notre Dame following four years as the head coach at Oregon. In Eugene, Silverio led one of the best program turnarounds in the country. She helped the Ducks to their longest stretch in the ITA team rankings since 2009 while earning UO’s first NCAA tournament bid in a decade.

She inherits an Irish team which returns five key members of last year’s lineup: sophomore Ally Bojczuk, graduate student Brooke Broda, senior Rachel Chong, sophomore Cameron Corse and junior Zoe Spence. The quintet combined for 86 singles wins last season, with Bojczuk and Spence each surpassing the 20-win mark in singles play.

Corse and Spence enter the fall as the ITA’s 32nd-ranked doubles team after going 13-14 in doubles action last year, highlighted by three wins over ranked opponents. The duo moved to the top of the doubles lineup before Corse missed the final month of the spring season due to injury.

FALL SCHEDULE

Silverio has the Irish set to play in four competitions this fall, including the Big 5 Challenge.

  • Corse and Spence have qualified for the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships to be held Sept. 29-Oct. 6 in Pacific Palisades, California
  • The team will compete at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oct. 18-23
  • The fall slate concludes with the Notre Dame Invitational to be held Nov. 2-4