Feb. 17, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – With two weekend wins under its belt, the No. 14 Notre Dame women’s tennis team finished out the weekend with a final win over No. 31 South Florida, 6-1, on Sunday morning at the Eck Tennis Pavilion. The Irish finished out the weekend 3-0 after defeating Ohio State and Wisconsin respectively on Thursday and Friday. They improve their overall dual-match record to 6-4 and are now 2-0 in BIG EAST action with the wins over South Florida this morning and Louisville (6-1) in the season opener.
The Irish cruised through the doubles action, earning the point to go up 1-0 going into singles action. It was total domination for the No. 3 pair of Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft as they swept Allyn Mueller and Jessica Zok, 8-0 to earn the first Notre Dame win. Finishing up not far behind them was Kali Krisik and Kristen Raphael with an 8-2 victory to secure the early lead. The twosome took the match over Janette Bejlkova and Natalia Guevara of South Florida.
Rounding out the doubles pair was another win for Notre Dame with Cosmina Ciobanu and Colleen Rielley defeating Iciri Rai and Liz Cruz. Ciobanu and Rielley started out down, 2-0, but rallied back to win the match, 8-5.
The winning continued as No. 62 Ciobanu earned the next point for the Irish as she blew past Mueller of USF. Ciobanu took the match, 6-1, 6-2, and has now won three consecutive singles matches. Her win was followed up by another victory for Notre Dame from No. 64 Buck. Buck went down early in the first set, 2-0, but Buck’s perseverance paid off as she rallied and never looked back. She went on to get the win, 6-2, and stormed through the second match, 6-0, for the Irish point.
With Notre Dame up 3-0, No. 82 Katie Potts sealed the deal for Notre Dame, earning a victory against Rai, for the team win. Her 6-3, 6-3 performance clinched the team win at 4-0. Her performance was followed up with more success as No. 89 Krisik defeated No. 71 Guevara, 6-2, 6-1, and No. 88 Rielley earned a victory over Cruz, taking the match 6-1, 6-4.
The match closed out with a close competition between Tefft and Bejlkova. Bejlkova held a stiff lead in the first set, 4-0, but Tefft fought back to take the win 7-6 (7-5). The second set proved to be tougher for Tefft as she lost 6-0. In the final tiebreaker it was Bejlkova who was victorious earning the sole South Florida point, as she took the point, 10-6.
–ND–