March 9, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 26th-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis team, in the midst of a five-match winning streak, will spend its spring break in Miami, Fla., before facing the 43rd-ranked Miami Hurricanes on Thurs., March 11, at 5:00 p.m.

THIS WEEK FOR THE IRISH: The Irish are off to Miami, Fla., for their spring break week, culminating in a match with the Miami Hurricanes for their first outdoor match of the year in a rematch of the last three BIG EAST championship finals. Notre Dame beat Miami 4-0 in the 1996 BIG EAST final but lost 4-1 in the final in each of the last two years. The Irish trail in the series with the Hurricanes 3-6 with the other two wins coming at home during the 1996 and 1998 regular seasons.

The Hurricanes enter the match with a 5-3 record after dropping a 5-2 match to seventh-ranked Texas on Sunday. Miami is led by junior Mark Arrowsmith and freshman Jamin Thompson. The match will televised on a tape-delayed basis by Sports Channel Florida, airing on Sun., March 14, at 7:00 p.m. and on Mon., March 15, at 10:00 a.m.

  • Notre Dame to face Miami riding a five-match winning streak
  • Sachire, Laflin continue dual-match success

SACHIRE APPROACHES CENTURY MARK: Junior All-American Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) will be looking for his 100th career singles win against the Hurricanes. He enters the match with a 99-28 career record and looks to be the first Notre Dame junior to reach 100 wins since former All-American and No. 1 nationally-ranked college singles player David DiLucia reached the century mark as a junior in 1991. DiLucia ended his career by leading the Irish to the 1992 NCAA championship title match with a 146-33 career record.

BAYLISS REACHES 500TH WIN: Irish head coach Bob Bayliss became the 11th active men’s tennis coach to record his 500th career win with a 7-0 win over Northwestern on Feb. 20. Bayliss is in his 12th year as head coach of the Irish, compiling a 223-99 (.693) record at Notre Dame and a career mark of 505-193 (.723), the sixth-best winning percentage among active men’s coaches. He has guided the Irish to NCAA championship appearances in each of the last eight years, including an NCAA second-place finish in 1992. The Richmond, Va., native, and 1966 graduate of Richmond has been named ITA national coach of the year in 1992 and ITA regional coach of the year three times. The five-time conference coach of year has coached his players to 12 All-America honors in his 11 years at Notre Dame, with junior Ryan Sachire his latest All-American.

SACHIRE SOLID AT NO. 2: Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) remains second in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, released by the ITA on March 9. Sachire’s No. 2 spot marks the highest ranking for an Irish singles player since David DiLucia finished the 1992 regular season as the No. 1 player in the country. Sachire, who is 28-5 in singles and 12-1 in dual matches in ’99, entered the 1998 fall season ranked No. 8 in the preseason but vaulted five spots to three based on his fall performance. His jump from three to two came in the Feb. 16 ranking after winning the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships singles consolation. Since taking over the No. 2 spot behind Harvard’s James Blake, Sachire has compiled a 7-2 record, losing just one set.

IRISH EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO FIVE: Freshman Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.) rallied from a 3-6, 1-4 deficit for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Chris Struck at No. 4 singles to lead Notre Dame to a 4-3 win over Michigan State on March 3, as the Irish defeated the Spartans for the 10th consecutive time. Notre Dame won the doubles point and split the six singles matches for the win.

Junior All-American Ryan Sachire, senior Brian Patterson (Falmouth, Maine) and Laflin gave the Irish wins in their singles matches. The second-ranked Sachire improved to 28-5 this year with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Trey Eubanks at No. 1 singles. Patterson won his seventh straight match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ivica Primorac at No. 2 singles. Laflin’s win was his third match-clinching victory of the season and improved his 1999 record to 11-0. Michigan State won at Nos. 2, 5 and 6 for their three points.

The Irish won the doubles point with a tiebreaker win at No. 1 doubles. Patterson and Sachire held off set points against them in their 9-8 (7-3) win over 12th-ranked Kigongo and Trinidad to clinch the doubles point. Trent Miller (San Diego, Calif.) and Andy Warford (Bismarck, N.D.) beat Mark Jacobson and Kosta 8-1 at No. 3 doubles. Eubanks and Struck beat Matt Daly (Wellesley, Mass.) and Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) 8-5 at No. 2 doubles.

SACHIRE CONTINUES DUAL MATCH SUCCESS: Ryan Sachire entered his junior year with a 37-10 dual match record in his first two years and has improved that mark to 51-11 with his 14-1 mark this year. Three of his wins came against top 10 players, including Texas’ Jack Brasington and Wisconsin’s Mark Loughrin. His overall singles record is 28-5 this year with 16 wins against ranked opponents. He enters the Miami match having won his last seven matches, including the last four in straight sets.

PATTERSON CONSISTENT IN SINGLES AND DOUBLES: Senior captain Brian Patterson also has won seven straight singles matches to up his career singles record to 78-38 in his three-plus years at Notre Dame. A two-time NCAA doubles participant, Patterson’s doubles record is nearly identical to his singles slate at 77-39, just one win behind his singles mark. His singles record in dual matches is 59-29 for his career with a 31-7 mark since the beginning of his junior year.

LAFLIN UNBEATEN IN 1999: Irish freshman Andrew Laflin remains perfect in 1999 with a 11-0 record. The lefty won his first seven matches without dropping a set before winning in three sets against both Boise State and Ohio State. Laflin played at No. 5 singles in his first match of 1999 before winning five matches at No. 6 singles. Since first moving up to the No. 4 position in the Iowa match, Laflin has gone 5-0. His overall singles record stands at 18-5, and he boasts a 15-0 record when he wins the first set. Of his 11 wins in 1999, three have clinched match wins for the Irish.

SACHIRE WINS ROLEX CONSOLATION SINGLES: Ryan Sachire rallied from a first-round loss to win the singles consolation draw at the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the third leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association collegiate grand slam. After Virginia Tech’s 23rd-ranked Adam Marchetti bounced the third-seeded Sachire 7-5, 6-3 in the first round, Sachire won four straight matches to win the consolation singles. He beat small college champion Mario Toledo of Georgia Perimeter 6-0, 6-1, Tulsa’s 53rd-ranked Nenad Toroman 6-2, 6-4, sixth-ranked Esteban Carril of TCU 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and 25th-ranked Daniel Andersson of VCU 6-2, 6-3 in his four consolation matches.

Sachire’s latest grand slam success comes after he advanced to the final of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships Oct. 15-18, 1998, in Austin, Texas, the second of the four ITA collegiate grand slam events, before losing 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) to Harvard’s James Blake, currently the No. 1 player in the country. Sachire became just the second Notre Dame men’s tennis player to reach the final of a collegiate grand slam, joining David DiLucia in 1992. Sachire reached the final by rallying for a 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4 semifinal win over Washington’s unseeded and 21st-ranked Robert Kendrick. The Canfield, Ohio, native and former Canfield High School standout was one of eight seeds in the 64-player draw at the ITA All-American Championships. He reached the quarterfinals of the tournament last year as a sophomore. Sachire finished with a 5-1 record in the tournament and posted straight-set wins over Texas A&M’s Shuon Madden, Northwestern’s 64th-ranked Doug Bohaboy, Miami’s 46th-ranked Ivan Rodrigo and Stanford’s 30th-ranked Alex Kim to reach the semifinals.

IRISH FACE TOUGH SLATE: The Irish have played eight matches against ranked teams and two matches against top 10 teams already in 1999. In all, Notre Dame will play at least 12 matches against ranked teams in 1999, including seven ranked teams at home.

FALL REVIEW: In addition to reaching the final of the ITA All-American Championships, Sachire led the team in wins with his 12-3 record, including seven wins over ranked players. Matt Daly was right behind Sachire with 11 wins against just two losses. He went 5-0 at the Thunderbird Invitational at Arizona State in the round robin. His first loss came to teammate Casey Smith 7-5, 6-4 at the Rice Invitational and his second loss came in the third round of the ITA Region IV championship to eventual champion Mark Loughrin of Wisconsin by a 6-1, 7-6 (6) score.

Andrew Laflin finished with a 7-5 record in his first fall season at Notre Dame and qualified for the ITA Region IV championship where he had a first round bye, won his second round match and lost in the third round to Jon Svensson of Minnesota. Smith opened his collegiate tennis career by winning his flight at the Rice Invitational and earned a seed at the ITA Region IV championship. Aaron Talarico lost just once, finishing with a 7-1 record and a five match winning streak at the Thunderbird Invitational. Javier Taborga went 5-3 with two of his three losses coming in three sets.

Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings

This  Last School             TotalRank  Rank  1.   T5. UCLA                525  2.   T5. Illinois *          517  3.    1. Stanford            510  4.  T10. Duke *              505  5.    2. Georgia             495  6.    4. Mississippi         488  7.   19. Baylor              476  8.    7. Texas *             466  9.   18. Washington          464 10.  T10. SMU                 459 11.    9. South Carolina      453 12.    8. Pepperdine          443T13.   17. Arizona State       438T13.   15. USC                 438 15.   12. Tennessee           424 16.   16. Harvard             422T17.    3. Mississippi State   421T17.   13. Florida             421 19.   14. Texas A&M           401 20.   19. LSU                 397 21.   26. Kentucky *          367T22.   25. California          363T22.   27. VCU                 363T24.   28. San Diego State     349T24.   23. Minnesota           349T26.   24  Notre Dame          348T26.   22. Fresno State        348
* indicates Notre Dame opponents

Other Notre Dame opponents

 33.   37. Northwestern        285 35.   37. Purdue              278T43.   53. Miami (Fla.)        216T43.   59. Michigan            216T55.   43. Boise State         159 63.   NR  William & Mary       95 65.   54. Michigan State       83T75.   63. Wisconsin            36T75.   NR  Indiana              36

Singles Release: March 9, 1999


This Last Name SchoolRank Rank 1. 1. James Blake Harvard 2. 2. Ryan Sachire Notre Dame 3. 3. Robert Kendrick Washington 4. 7. Oliver Freelove Illinois 5. 8. Ryan Wolters Stanford 6. 6. Francisco Rodriguez Alabama 7. 5. Esteban Carril TCU 8. 12. Hirsham Hemeda Georgia 9. T24. Jeff Morrison Florida10. 26. Ignacio Hirigoyen SMU11. 14. Jean-Noel Grinda UCLA12. 4. Peter Handoyo Tennessee13. 20. KJ Hippensteel Stanford14. 13. Daniel Andersson VCU15. 21. Marco Baron Mississippi State16. 11. Aaron Marchetti Virginia Tech17. 10. Guillaume Legat South Carolina18. T15. Adam Marchetti Virginia Tech19. T18. Tom Chicoine Minnesota20. 48. Doug Root Duke