Jan. 25, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The No. 13 Notre Dame men’s tennis team will open their dual-match portion of the schedule this weekend when it travels to #8 Virginia for a 5 p.m. (EST) contest on Friday at the Boyd Tinsley Courts. The Irish will then travel to face William & Mary on Saturday. First-serve with the Tribe is set for 6 p.m. at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.
Notre Dame, coming off its round of 16 appearance in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, has won eight of its last 10 season-opening matches and has started 1-0 in each of the last seven seasons in which the first dual match was on the opponent’s home court. This will be the third consecutive year that the Irish open their dual-match season playing on their foe’s home court, following a 6-1 win at Northwestern in 2006. In his tenure at Notre Dame, Bob Bayliss’ teams are 11-7 in season-opening matches and 13-5 in road openers.
The Cavaliers opened their dual-match season with a convincing 7-0 rout of William & Mary on Wednesday. Two players ranked in the top 10 of the ITA singles rankings lead Virginia. Junior Somdev Devvarman is ranked #8, while fellow junior Treat Huey is #10. In doubles, the duo of Devvarman and Huey are ranked #7 nationally.
The Tribe (0-1) took part in the South Florida Invitational to open the spring, Jan. 19-21, in Tampa, Fla. William & Mary won 14 singles matches and six doubles contests during the three-day event. Sophomore Alex Zuck was the lone Tribe player to win all three of his singles competitions, while junior Kavi Sud went 2-0 during the event. In doubles, the Tribe’s top tandem of junior Alex Cojanu and senior Colin O’Brien went a perfect 3-0. The duo is 15-4 and ranked #30 in the country.
— ND —