Louisville Recap

Irish Score Sweep Of Louisville

NOTRE DAME, Indiana — The Notre Dame women’s tennis team responded to midterm week and the impending spring break with a 7-0 ACC victory over Louisville. The win moves the Irish to 9-5 on the season and 3-3 in league play.

How It Happened

The Irish took a 6-2 victory on doubles court one thanks to Cameron Corse and Bess Waldram defeating Sena Suswam and Dina Chaika. The Cardinals were staging a comeback on court two, where Raven Neely and Diana Wong rallied from 4-1 to tie Notre Dame’s Zoe Spence and Brooke Broda, 4-4, but it was for nought as Zoe Taylor and Ally Bojczuk secured the doubles point for the hosts with a 6-4 win on court three over Nikolina Jovic and Aleksandra Mally.

Taylor used a straight-set win over Wong to make it 2-0 Notre Dame, taking the first set 6-0 before using an 8-6 tiebreak win to take the second set, 7-6. Waldram was the next to score, taking a 6-3, 7-5 victory at four singles over Neely.

The Irish then clinched the match on court two, with Bojczuk winning a 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 battle form Jovic. 

Remaining matches saw Broda earn a three-set victory over Hamlin (2-6, 7-5, 6-3), Spence take a three-set win from Suswam (6-4, 2-6, 6-3) and Corse win a battle with Mally which went to a super tiebreaker in lieu of a third set (5-7, 7-6, 10-6).

Match Notes

  • Spence improved to 6-4 when playing at the top of the lineup while making her season debut in the ITA singles rankings at 58th.
  • Bojczuk is 7-1 this year at two singles.
  • Corse is 10-2 in singles action during the spring.
  • Taylor is 7-1 in singles when playing on court six.
  • Spence and Broda are 3-0 when playing two doubles.
  • Taylor and Bojczuk are 6-1 together at three doubles.

Silverio’s Story
Head coach Alison Sliverio’s thoughts on the match…

On playing the first match after midterms…
“It definitely puts an exclamation point on the week. It was certainly something we discussed leading into the week. Our academic advisor was all over it. Our girls were organized and they did a phenomenal job staying on top of their work. We understand that can be a stressful time with midterms and we’re right in the heat of our ACC matches and Louisville is such a tough team. Preparation (on the court) was business as usual this week.”

On the three-match trip to Florida over spring break to face Iowa, Miami and Florida State…
“It’s great. We’re fortunate we get to go down to Florida for spring break and we’re going to have three great matches down there and some days for training in between. It’ll be a nice week of outdoor tennis. It’ll be nice to get outside and we’re all excited about that. We’re excited to be playing three big upcoming matches.”

On individual focus at each singles match…
“Obviously 3-0 doesn’t mean anything. It brings some great momentum for the match, but Ally (Bojczuk) had to close it out. (Zoe) Spence had to close it out. (Brooke Broda) had to close it out and obviously Cam (Corse) had to finish up and close it out. That’s the piece, as we go along in the season, is understanding that everyone has to take care of business on their court. Of course we want to feed energy to each other and feed that support out to each other, but we also have to be focused on the task at hand. Sometimes you have to have that hyper-focus and I thought, even though we were up 3-0, the four that were left on the court did a great job of saying ‘Alright, I’m taking care of my court.'”

On rallies after dropping the first set…
“It’s a testament to their hard work and the culture that we’re going to continue to press on. We’re going to be what we say we’re about. We talk about being rerentless and doing it with integrity and hard work and that’s what the team is showing.”

Scoreboard

Notre Dame 7, Louisville 0
Mar 08, 2019 at Notre Dame, IN (Eck Tennis Pavilion) 

Singles competition
1. #58 Zoe Spence (ND) def. Sena Suswam (UL) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
2. Ally Bojczuk (ND) def. Nikolina Jovic (UL) 7-6 (7-1), 7-5
3. Cameron Corse (ND) def. Aleksandra Mally (UL) 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 10-6
4. Bess Waldram (ND) def. Raven Neely (UL) 6-3, 7-5
5. Brooke Broda (ND) def. Chloe Hamlin (UL) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
6. Zoe Taylor (ND) def. Diana Wong (UL) 6-0, 7-6 (8-6)
Doubles competition
1. Cameron Corse/Bess Waldram (ND) def. Sena Suswam/Dina Chaika (UL) 6-2
2. Zoe Spence/Brooke Broda (ND) vs. Raven Neely/Diana Wong (UL) 4-4, unfinished
3. Zoe Taylor/Ally Bojczuk (ND) def. Nikolina Jovic/Aleksandra Mally (UL) 6-4
Match Notes
Louisville 10-6, 2-4 ACC
Notre Dame 9-5, 3-3 ACC
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (6,4,2,5,1,3)
T-2:50 A-94

Up Next

Notre Dame embarks on a spring break trip to Florida where the Fighting Irish will take on Iowa on Tuesday, March 12, at the USTA National Campus. The match is part of the UTSA’s Collegiate Series. The Irish will then remain in the Sunshine State to return to ACC action when they visit Miami (Friday, March 15) and Florida State (Sunday, March 17).