Feb. 5, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – In its first home dual-match competition, the No. 19 Notre Dame women’s tennis team broke a two game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the No. 56 BYU, clinching the victory early in the match. The Irish improve their season record to 2-2 with the victory.
The Irish got off to a quick start, earning the doubles point with wins from the duos of Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft and Cosmina Ciobanu and Colleen Rielley. Ciobanu and Rielley cruised past the BYU combination of Elizaveta Ezhova and Elle Carney, 8-3, to earn the first win for Notre Dame in the No. 3 spot. The third-ranked doubles pair of Buck and Tefft fought through a closer match, 8-5, to secure the doubles point for the Irish.
Kali Krisik rounded up the first singles point for Notre Dame in the No. 6 spot. Ranked 89th in singles action, Krisik defeated Elle Carney with ease, 6-1, 6-2. Her performance was followed up by another Irish win from Tefft. She took the victory over Elizaveta Ezhova of BYU, 6-2, 6-1, in the No. 3 spot.
With the third-singles point going to BYU, it was Rielley pulling through to get the fourth point for Notre Dame to secure the win for the Irish. Rielley took the No. 4 spot with a 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) win over Chie Hayasaka of BYU. Rielley was initially down in the second set, but stormed back to take the clutch victory.
The Irish dropped the final two points with Katie Potts and Buck each falling in their matches. Potts lost 7-5 in the first set, but bounced back in the second, 6-3. She eventually lost in the tiebreaker, 1-0 (10-6). Buck lost a hard fought match with Kristina Doerr. Doerr took the first set, 6-2, but Buck remained resilient and took the second with a dominate score of 6-1. The third set proved to be too much for Buck as she fell, 6-3.
Next up for the Notre Dame women is the ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championships, set for Feb. 7-10 in Madison, Wis., with the University of Wisconsin playing host to the tournament. The championship is an elite opportunity for the Irish, with 16 of the top programs in the country competing in the nation’s only indoor team tennis championship.
This will not be the first Notre Dame visit to the championship, as the Irish have competed in ten previous ITA championships, including last season where the Notre Dame women finished runner-up in the tournament. In the Irish top-two finish, Notre Dame defeated Clemson, Baylor and Northwestern before losing to Georgia Tech in the championship match.
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