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No. 21 Women's Tennis Prepared To Open NCAA Championship Play Against No. 30 Wisconsin

May 10, 2002

EVANSTON, Ill. – For the seventh consecutive season and the ninth time in the last 10 years, the 21st-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team has qualified for the NCAA Championships. The Irish have reached the round of 16 in each of the last two seasons, and their best-ever finish came in 1996, when they advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals.

This season, Notre Dame will open its quest for a third consecutive trip to the round of 16 when it faces off with No. 30 Wisconsin Saturday at 10 a.m. (CDT) at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. In the event of inclement weather, the match will be moved indoors to NU’s Combe Tennis Center. Should the Irish defeat the Badgers, they would move on to play the winner of Saturday’s other first-round match between the No. 16 overall seed, Northwestern (ranked 15th nationally) and Illinois-Chicago. That second-round contest will take place Sunday at noon (CDT).

LAST TIME OUT: Notre Dame advanced to the finals of the BIG EAST Conference Championship for the seventh consecutive season, but was thwarted in its bid for a fifth league title after losing to Miami in the championship match on April 21 in Coral Gables, Fla.

As the top seed in the tournament, the Irish received a bye into the semifinal round, where they met up with fourth-seeded Boston College. Notre Dame easily dispatched the Eagles, 4-1, to earn the right to defend the conference title it won in 2001. A pair of Colorado natives helped the Irish make that return trip, as senior Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and sophomore Alicia Salas (Engelwood, Colo.) both were double winners in the semifinal victory over BC. Varnum, ranked 112th in the country in singles, earned a 6-3, 6-4 win at the No. 1 spot and teamed with classmate Nina Vaughan (Corona del Mar, Calif.) for a convincing 8-3 triumph at the No. 2 doubles position. Salas continued her rampage through the singles ranks this season, blowing by BC’s Ruta Veitas, 6-4, 6-2, to improve to 24-2 in dual matches and tie the Notre Dame single-season record for dual match wins. Salas also paired with freshman Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla.) for the clinching doubles victory at the No. 3 flight, registering an 8-4 conquest.

Fortunes appeared to be in Notre Dame’s favor early in its title match with Miami, but the Hurricanes rallied for the 4-1 victory and their third BIG EAST crown. The Irish drew first blood by claiming a hard-fought doubles point from the hosts. Connelly and Salas proved to be the difference, picking up an 8-6 win at No. 3 to secure the opening salvo.

Miami came back and shifted the momentum into its court by taking the opening set in four of the six singles matches. Vaughan battled gamely, forcing a second-set tiebreak in her match at the No. 2 flight, and senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) was on the brink of pushing her No. 3 match to a decisive third set, but both players came up just short. Once the outcome was decided, Salas and junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) saw their matches abandoned, although both players were leading at the time.

IRISH IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP: For the first time since 1998, Notre Dame will not serve as a host for first and second round action in the NCAA tournament. This is the fourth year in which the NCAA Championships will consist of a 64-team field, with 31 conference champions garnering automatic bids and 33 at-large entries as chosen by the NCAA Women’s Tennis Selection Sub-Committee. The first two rounds of the team championships will be contested at 16 campus sites this weekend. The 16 remaining teams will advance to the national site, the Taube Family Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif., for the final four rounds, to be contested May 16-19.

Notre Dame has qualified for the team portion of the NCAA Championships nine times, all in the last 10 seasons under the guidance of current head coach Jay Louderback. The best finish for the Irish came in 1996, when they reached the quarterfinals before losing to Stanford, 5-1, in Tallahassee, Fla. Notre Dame has advanced to the round of 16 three other times, including each of the last two seasons, when it defeated Illinois-Chicago (5-0) and South Carolina (5-1) in 2000, and Eastern Michigan (4-0) and Tulane (4-0) in 2001 — both regionals were contested at Notre Dame’s Courtney Tennis Center. In each case, the Irish saw their NCAA Championship run come to an end at the hands of Florida, which registered a 5-0 win in 2000 and a 4-1 victory last season.

Notre Dame is 11-8 all-time in NCAA Championship play and has won at least one match in each of its previous nine appearances in the national tournament. The Irish are 5-4 when playing away from home, where they will be for the first time since they reached the Midwest Regional final in 1998 in Champaign, Ill. Ironically, the two teams Notre Dame defeated to reach the regional final are competing this weekend in Evanston — Northwestern and Wisconsin.

In addition to its recent team success, Notre Dame has sent at least one player to either the NCAA singles or doubles tournament every year since 1989. For the fifth consecutive season, the Irish will be sending a doubles team to the national tournament, as senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) and junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) were selected to the 32-team competition, which will take place May 21-25 at the Taube Family Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.

Notre Dame posted its best individual singles finish last season, when Michelle Dasso surged all the way to the NCAA semifinals before falling to eventual national champion Laura Granville of Stanford. Three Irish doubles teams have reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, with Dasso and Jennifer Hall the most recent tandem to do so in 1999. Hall and Tiffany Gates turned the trick in 1998, and Wendy Crabtree and Lisa Tholen were the first Irish pair to advance to the round of eight in 1994.

SCOUTING THE FIELD: Wisconsin will be the first-round opponent for Notre Dame this season. The Badgers come into this weekend’s regional ranked 30th in the country with a record of 16-8 overall. Like the Irish, Wisconsin earned an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament after a regular season in which it finished second in the Big Ten Conference. One of the Badgers? losses was a 7-0 decision at the hands of the Irish at the Eck Tennis Pavilion on March 1. In that match, Notre Dame swept the doubles contests and took all six singles tilts to gain victory, though two matches were decided in third-set tiebreakers and another went to a match tiebreaker. Notre Dame has won each of the last six meetings between the schools, but the teams have split two previous NCAA appearances, with the Badgers upsetting the host Irish in the 1997 Midwest Regional semifinals and Notre Dame gaining revenge in the same round the following year in Champaign, Ill.

Illinois-Chicago comes into the tournament on a hot streak, having won seven straight and 11 of its last 12 and posting shutouts in each of those victories. UIC gained entrance into the NCAA Championships as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference champion. Notre Dame has defeated the Flames in all seven meetings, including the first round of the 1999 and 2000 NCAA tournaments.

Northwestern, seeded 16th overall in the tournament, earned an automatic berth with its fourth consecutive Big Ten tournament championship. The Wildcats (21-5) have won 10 in a row, including a 4-3 victory over the Irish in the Eck Tennis Pavilion on April 6. In that match, Notre Dame won the doubles point, but the ‘Cats took four of six singles matches to win. With the match tied 3-3, Ruth Barnes won the final five games of her match to secure a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory at No. 6 and give Northwestern the victory. Notre Dame and Northwestern have a long rivalry, with the Wildcats leading the all-time series 15-8 — giving them the distinction of having defeated the Irish more times than any other school in the program?s history. Notre Dame defeated Northwestern in the first round of the 1998 Midwest Regional in the only postseason meeting of the schools.

TRACKING THIS WEEKEND’S ACTION: In-progress updates of action from the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament from Evanston, Ill., may be obtained via the Notre Dame Sports Hotline at (574) 631-3000. The hotline will be updated approximately every 15-30 minutes through the day and may be accessed by selected option #8 from the main menu and option #2 from the tennis menu.

In addition, the official Notre Dame athletics website, www.und.com, features information on the Irish and a link to the special web page for this weekend’s regional which has been set up by Northwestern University. A full recap of the day’s events will be posted on the Notre Dame website once action is completed.

CUNHA/GREEN SELECTED FOR NCAA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP: Senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) and junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) have been chosen as one of 32 teams to compete in the NCAA Doubles Championships May 21-25 at the Taube Family Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif. The pair will have the opportunity to garner All-America honors, which are bestowed upon (1) the eight seeded doubles teams in the tournament; (2) the eight quarterfinalist pairs in the tournament; (3) the top 10 teams in the final edition of the the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, which will be released following the NCAA Championships.

The berth for Cunha and Green, the first in both of their careers, marks the 10th consecutive year that a Notre Dame doubles pair has earned a bid in the NCAA championships. Three Irish doubles teams have reached the national quarterfinals with Michelle Dasso and Jennifer Hall doing it most recently, in 1999. Cunha and Green, ranked 55th nationally, had never teamed up a month ago, when the two were penciled into head coach Jay Louderback’s lineup at the No. 1 spot against the nation’s top-ranked doubles team from Wake Forest. Though they lost their debut, Cunha and Green are 5-2 since then with another match abandoned with them leading 7-4. Of the two other losses for the Irish team, one was in a tiebreaker and one was to the 38th-ranked pair in the nation.

Green will finish her career as one of the most successful doubles players in the program’s history. She holds a 104-40 (.722) mark in partnered play, which places her in a tie for second place (with classmate Becky Varnum) in career doubles triumphs, just five shy of the school record, held by 2001 graduate Dasso. Overall this season, Green holds a 23-16 record in doubles, while Cunha is 17-21.

AMONG THE NATION’S ELITE: Notre Dame has appeared in the top 25 of the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings throughout the 2002 spring season, topping out at No. 13 on Jan. 30. The Irish held that spot for two weeks before losses to No. 4 Vanderbilt and No. 16 North Carolina at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships halted their rise. The first eight polls were conducted via balloting from the ITA National Ranking Committee. Beginning March 20 and for the remainder of the season, the rankings are based on the ITA’s point-per-match computer formula, in which teams are awarded points for victories based on their opponent’s ranking.

Now standing 21st, Notre Dame now has been ranked in the national top 25 in 116 consecutive sets of rankings released by the ITA. After finishing the previous season 28th, the Irish earned a preseason ranking of 18th in the fall of 1995 and have been in the top 25 ever since, peaking at a school-record No. 5 midway through last season.

In addition to its team placing, Notre Dame has one singles player and two doubles teams in the national rankings. In singles, senior Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) is slotted at No. 114 — she has been ranked nationally all year long, opening the campaign with a season-best ranking of 48th.

In doubles competition, Varnum and classmate Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) remain firmly entrenched in the rankings, checking in at No. 38 in the latest survey, despite not playing together in the last nine matches. The Irish tandem is 17-13 this year and has been a fixture on the national scene, having been ranked 23rd in the fall and remaining in the top 40 since then. In fact, Varnum has been ranked in the national top 40 in doubles in each of the past 27 sets of rankings, dating back to the fall 1999 survey.

Green actually holds down two spots in the doubles rankings, pairing with junior Katie Cunha (Mercer Island, Wash.) to appear 55th in the latest poll. The tandem was a late-season creation of head coach Jay Louderback and has paid dividends, going 5-2, with one match abandoned just one game shy of victory. Their most notable win to date came on April 6, when they toppled Northwestern’s 35th-ranked doubles team of Marine Piriou and Jessica Rush at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.

Green is one of only three players in the country who are currently ranked twice in the doubles poll. The others are Raquel Kops-Jones of California (#20 and #22) and Kelly McCain of Duke (#26 and #27).

VARNUM DOUBLES DOMINANCE: Senior Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) has put together one of the most successful doubles careers in the history of Irish women’s tennis. She has a record of 104-52, tying her with classmate Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) as the second-winningest doubles player in school history behind her two-year doubles partner and 2001 graduate Michelle Dasso, who finished her career with a record of 109-42. Dasso and Varnum, who were ranked in the top 10 all year and peaked at No. 5, earned All-America honors a season ago to become just the fourth Irish doubles team to do so since the program attained Division I status. In 2001, Varnum shattered the school record for doubles wins in a season, compiling a 37-9 mark. The Irish captain has been a fixture in the national doubles rankings throughout the past three seasons, having been ranked in the national doubles top 40 in each of the past 27 sets of rankings. She has been responsible for a number of big wins, registering 24 victories over ranked opponents in her career. Varnum and Dasso knocked off teams ranked in the top 10 on four occasions, including an upset of the nation’s No. 1 doubles team of Palencia and Senoglu from Pepperdine last spring. Varnum is 22-20 this season in doubles.

SENSATIONAL SALAS: After not being a regular part of the Irish lineup a season ago, sophomore Alicia Salas (Engelwood, Colo.) has been the most consistent winner for Notre Dame in 2002. She leads the team in both singles and doubles victories and has posted a 24-2 mark in dual singles matches (tied for first in school history) and a 19-8 dual doubles record. In fact, Salas is a stunning 47-9 in her career in singles matches and her .839 winning percentage is the second-best in school history (min. 25 matches).

This season, Salas is 31-5 in singles, becoming the 24th player in school history to reach the 30-win plateau. She also has won 27 of her last 29 matches. She is 3-0 this spring against ranked opponents, including back-to-back wins on March 30 and April 1 over #81 Katie Martzolf of Wake Forest and 64th-ranked Saras Arasu of Duke, the latter being the highest-ranked opponent she has defeated in her career. Salas also knocked off 77th-ranked Agnes Wiski of Tennessee earlier this year. 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 spring. Salas was particularly dominant at home this season, going 16-1 in singles and 14-2 in doubles at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.

CENTURY CITY: Prior to last season, Laura Lee (’85) and Susie Panther (’86) were the only players in school history to collect 100 doubles victories. The list has now expanded to five. Michelle Dasso, a 2001 graduate, finished her career with 109 doubles wins, topping Panther’s total of 101 and Lee’s mark of 100. Two members of the class of 2002 have reached the century mark this season: Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.). Varnum/Green’s win against Illinois on March 27 put the Irish captain into triple digits, while Green’s 100th win came against Duke on April 1. Entering this weekend’s NCAA Championship, both players are tied for second with 104 career doubles wins at Notre Dame.

BICENTENNIAL FEVER: Senior Lindsey Green (El Cajon, Calif.) achieved another career milestone April 21 in the BIG EAST Championship final against Miami, picking up her 200th combined victory with an 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles. Green is only the fourth player in Notre Dame history to reach the bicentennial mark in career combined wins, joining Michelle Dasso (249-78 from 1998-2001), Kelly Zalinski (213-106 from 1997-2000) and Jennifer Hall (209-107 from 1996-99). Green is 200-96 in her four-year Irish tenure, going 96-54 in singles and 104-40 in doubles from 1999-2002.

Another Irish senior, captain Becky Varnum (Colorado Springs, Colo.) has a chance to join this elite sorority with four wins this weekend. She currently holds a career combined mark of 196-117, including a 92-65 singles record and a 104-52 doubles total since 1999.

IRISH FACED TOUGH SLATE: The Irish tackled a difficult schedule in 2002 and recently completed a very challenging seven-match stretch to finish the regular season. Entering this weekend’s NCAA Championship, the Irish have faced 10 teams currently ranked in the top 25, five in the top 10 and have had three matches against teams who were ranked in the national top five at the time of the match. Overall, 23 of the 27 opponents on Notre Dame’s schedule were ranked at first serve and 18 now are ranked in the top 50. Fifteen 2002 opponents participated in the NCAA tournament a year ago, including six squads that advanced to the round of 16. The Irish have collected 10 wins over ranked foes this season, including a 5-2 triumph over No. 7 USC on Feb. 7, and a 5-2 win at 14th-ranked William & Mary on April 13.

DOUBLES SHAKEUP: After claiming the doubles point in eight of the first 13 matches of the season, the Irish have struggled in that facet of late. Notre Dame has won the initial point of the match seven times in its last 14 matches, though a number of those were hotly contested. In those seven doubles-point defeats, four times the deciding match came down to an 8-6 score, once it was 9-7 and once a tiebreaker decided the point.

Irish head coach Jay Louderback has juggled the doubles lineup twice this season. He opened the year with the teams of Green/Varnum, Connelly/Cunha and Salas/Vaughan, which won the doubles point in each of the first three matches, but then lost it in four of the next five, prompting a change immediately after the National Team Indoor Championships. The Irish lineup then consisted primarily of Green/Varnum, Cunha/Vaughan and Connelly/Salas. These combinations won the doubles point in four of the next five matches, but then lost it in three of the following five, prompting another switch. Prior to Notre Dame’s spring break trip to North Carolina March 30-April 2, the new teams of Cunha/Green, Varnum/Vaughan and Connelly/Salas were unveiled, but Notre Dame still dropped the doubles point in all three matches. They have since recovered to win the doubles marker in five of their final six matches (vs. #19 Northwestern, #27 Miami (twice), #14 William & Mary and Boston College).

IRISH INK THREE: Notre Dame head coach Jay Louderback recently announced the signing of three incoming freshman for the 2002-03 school year. Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Jennifer Smith (Charlotte, N.C.) and Kristina Stastny (St. Louis, Mo.) have signed national letters of intent to enroll at Notre Dame next year and join the Irish tennis team in the fall. All three are ranked among the top 25 current high school seniors in the country and they have combined for seven state high school titles and four national doubles titles in junior competition. Connelly is ranked 58th nationally among players 18 and younger and is the 25th-ranked high school senior. She has a National Indoors doubles title to her credit, as well as three Oklahoma state titles at No. 2 singles, playing behind her sister, current Irish freshman Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla.). Smith, who did not participate in prep tennis, is ranked 26th in the country in the 18-and-under division and is 10th nationally among high school seniors. She also has a national doubles title to her credit, coming at the National Hardcourt championships. Stastny recently captured her fourth state singles title, becoming the first player in history to win four Missouri state championships in singles. Stastny is ranked 21st in the 18s and is the eighth-ranked player in the nation who will enroll in college next fall. She has won doubles titles in the National Indoors and the National Clay Court championships. Stastny’s brother, Yan, was one of the top freshmen on the Notre Dame hockey team and her father, Peter, is a member of the National Hockey League Hall of Fame.

BIG EAST’S BEST: The University of Notre Dame has matched the conference record for BIG EAST Conference championships in an academic year. The Irish have captured league titles in six sports this season — men’s cross country, women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s swimming and diving, women’s indoor track and field and men’s tennis. The BIG EAST record for championships in a season is six, set by Notre Dame in 1996-97, when Irish teams captured crowns in men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s swimming and diving, men’s golf, and women’s tennis. The Irish have two more opportunities to add to this season’s total — this weekend’s softball championships in Salem, Va., where Notre Dame is the top seed, and the baseball championship later this month in Bridgewater, N.J.

GETTING YOUR TIMING DOWN: Just a reminder that South Bend never changes its clocks, remaining on Eastern Standard Time throughout the year. From now through the end of October, Notre Dame basically will be on Central time, since Eastern Standard Time is the equivalent of Central Daylight Time. When most of the rest of the country returns to Standard time the last Saturday in October, Notre Dame then will match Eastern time.

— ND —