Feb. 28, 2002
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 20th-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team will try to extend its three-match winning streak when it concludes a six-match homestand this weekend. The Irish will face #35 Wisconsin on Friday at 4:00 p.m. and #38 Ohio State Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
LAST WEEK’S ACTION: On Friday, the Irish defeated 48th-ranked Iowa 5-2. Notre Dame won the doubles point and four of six singles matches to gain the win. Senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) clinched the victory with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 upset win over 80th-ranked Cassie Haas at No. 3 singles. Junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) and freshman Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla.) each gained wins in both singles and doubles.
Notre Dame extended its unbeaten streak to three matches with a 7-0 shutout of BIG EAST foe Virginia Tech on Sunday morning. The Irish took the doubles point and did not drop a set in winning all six singles matches. Green, Cunha, and seniors Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Nina Vaughan (Corona del Mar, Calif.) each registered a pair of wins for Notre Dame. Green was the clincher again in helping the Irish to their first shutout of the season.
IRISH vs. BADGERS: Wisconsin is 8-2 overall and is ranked 35th in the nation, while sitting atop the Big Ten standings with a 3-0 mark. The Badgers, who have won five straight, are off to their best start since 1996. They were ranked 74th in the preseason and fell a spot to No. 75 before jumping 33 spaces after a two-week stretch that included 5-2 victories over #49 BYU and #52 Old Dominion, as well as a 4-3 loss to 12th-ranked Washington. Wisconsin moved into the top 40 this week after a 5-2 win over 35th-ranked Ohio State. Brigham Young is the only common opponent for the Irish and Badgers this season. Both teams registered 5-2 wins over the Cougars. Notre Dame swept the doubles point and won four singles matches (Nos. 1, 2, 4 & 6), while Wisconsin lost all three doubles matches, but rebounded to win at Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 singles. Wisconsin is led by Vanessa Rauh, who is ranked 71st in singles, and the 50th-ranked doubles team of Linde Mues and Lara Vojnov.
In 2001, Wisconsin was 9-16 and was ranked in three polls, peaking at No. 75 before falling out of the rankings.
Notre Dame and the Badgers will meet for the 12th consecutive season and 16th time overall. The Irish hold a 10-5 advantage, but the teams have split the six matches at Notre Dame. The Irish have won each of the last five matches and 10 of 13 in the Jay Louderback era. The last Wisconsin victory was in the 1997 NCAA tournament when the Badgers upset the host Irish 5-2 in the midwest regional semifinals. Notre Dame has shut out Wisconsin each of the last two seasons, including a 7-0 road win last year. In that match, the Irish did not drop a set in winning all three doubles and all six singles contests.
IRISH vs. BUCKEYES: Ohio State is 9-1 and ranked 38th nationally. The Buckeyes are 2-1 in the Big Ten. Ohio State was ranked 32nd in the preseason and won its first eight matches before losing to Wisconsin last weekend. The Buckeyes will conclude the weekend by taking on DePaul in the Eck Tennis Pavilion at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Virginia Tech is the lone common foe for the Irish and Ohio State this season. Notre Dame won all nine matches without dropping a set en route to a 7-0 win last Sunday, while the Buckeyes beat the Hokies 6-1 by sweeping the doubles point and winning at each of the top five singles positions. Ohio State has three players ranked in singles: Erica Fisk (49th), Sadhaf Pervez (82nd) and Monica Rincon (85th).
Last season, the Buckeyes were 17-11 and advanced to the NCAA tournament before falling to Mississippi State in the first round. Ohio State was ranked as high as 19th in the nation before finishing 33rd.
The Irish and the Buckeyes will meet for the fifth consecutive season and 13th time overall. Notre Dame dropped the first meeting in the Louderback era (a 7-2 road defeat in 1990), but has won all six matches since then. In 2001, the Irish swept the doubles matches and won five of six singles contests to take a 6-1 road victory. Rincon gained the lone Buckeye victory at No. 2 singles.
A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME: The doubles point has been a good indicator of Irish success recently. This season, Notre Dame is 7-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-5 when losing it. Dating back to last season, Notre Dame has gone on to win the match each of the last 20 times the Irish have captured the doubles point. The last time Notre Dame won the doubles point, but lost the match was March 1, 2001, when they dropped each of the bottom four singles matches to lose a 4-3 road decision to Northwestern.
HOMELAND SECURITY: This weekend, Notre Dame will complete a six-match home stretch, in which the Irish play a pair of home matches in each of three straight weekends. Thus far this season, the Irish have played just one match on the road (along with eight at home and three in the team indoor championships). After this weekend, Notre Dame will have just three home matches in its final 11. Earlier this season, the Irish dropped three straight matches at home, marking a first since 1992. The loss to Kentucky on Feb. 2 snapped a 12-match home winning streak. Nonetheless, the Irish have won 31 of the past 35 home regular-season matches. Over the past five seasons, Notre Dame is 46-8 (.852) at home. In the Jay Louderback era, the Irish are 114-26 (.814) in the friendly confines of the Courtney Tennis Center and Eck Tennis Pavilion.
AMONG THE NATION’S ELITE: The Irish are ranked 20th in the most recent Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings. Notre Dame has now been ranked in the national top 20 in 73 consecutive sets of rankings released by the ITA. After finishing the previous season 21st, the Irish earned a preseason ranking of 16th in the fall of 1997 and have been in the top 20 since then, peaking at a school-record No. 5 midway through last season. Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 20 in 139 of the last 141 polls, dating back to fall 1995.
DOUBLE(S) TROUBLE: Seniors Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) are on the verge of joining an elite group of Irish tennis players who have registered 100 or more career wins in doubles action. Varnum is 98-43 in her career, while Green is 97-36. Currently, only two players have gained 100 or more career doubles victories — Susie Panther (class of 1986, 101-25) and school-record-holder Michelle Dasso (class of 2001, 109-42).
SUPER SALAS: After not being a regular part of the Irish lineup a season ago, sophomore Alicia Salas (Engelwood, Colo.) has been a key to Irish success in 2002. She leads the team in both singles and doubles victories and has posted an 11-1 mark in dual singles matches, as well as an 8-4 doubles record in dual matches. Salas is 14-1 in her career in singles matches. This season she is 18-4 in singles and has won 14 of her last 15 matches. Earlier this year, Salas defeated 77th-ranked Agnes Wiski of Tennessee, marking the highest-ranked opponent she has beaten in her career. In doubles, she and senior Nina Vaughan (Corona del Mar, Calif.) notched an upset victory over Kentucky’s 27th-ranked team of Jill Buckley and Amy Trefethen 8-4 earlier this year. Salas has been particularly dominant at home this season. She is 11-1 in singles and 9-2 in doubles in the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
OMNI HOTELS RANKINGS: The first set of spring singles and doubles rankings were released last Friday and the Irish have two singles players and a doubles team listed. Senior All-American Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) is 73rd. Sophomore Alicia Salas (Engelwood, Colo.) earned her first career ranking — 127th in singles. Varnum and classmate Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) are 30th in doubles. Varnum has been ranked in the national top 35 in doubles in each of the past 22 sets of rankings, dating back to the fall 1999 rankings.
KEEPING UP WITH NOTRE DAME TENNIS: For the fastest results of Notre Dame tennis matches, call the Notre Dame sports information hotline at (219) 631-3000 and choose #8. The hotline provides schedule and results information for varsity sports and serves as a supplement to the game recaps and weekly releases provided on the official athletic website at www.und.com. The hotline is the first medium updated with the results of each Notre Dame tennis match. In addition, media members may be added to the sports information e-mail release list by contacting Bo Rottenborn at Rottenborn.2@nd.edu.