Kenneth Sabacinski

No. 29 Notre Dame Men's Tennis Earns Two Sunday Wins

Jan. 19, 2014

Box Score – Michigan State Match

Box Score – Toledo Match

#29 Notre Dame 7, Toledo 0Get Acrobat Reader

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team continued its great start to the 2014 spring season with wins against No. 47 Michigan State and Toledo during Sunday’s doubleheader at Eck Tennis Pavilion. The Irish beat the Spartans, 5-2, and Toledo, 7-0, to improve to 3-0 on the young season.

“It was a good weekend. William & Mary and Toledo are good teams, but with Michigan State you have an NCAA Tournament team from last year that is quite honestly they are better this year than they were last year,” said head coach Ryan Sachire. “They returned one through four and number six and replaced number five with a freshman who is probably better. So that’s a good team. We expect them to be an NCAA Tournament team. So to beat them without our number two player Quentin (Monaghan) is a good win.

“The thing that I was especially proud of was our ability to compete under pressure. I think today we were undefeated in tiebreakers. That’s a pressure moment and I thought we did a good job with that.”

In the opening weekend, the Irish displayed its youth and depth as six freshmen or sophomores earned playing time Sunday in helping Notre Dame win two matches.

“We have a lot of talented, hard-working players that are good and can help us,” said Sachire. “It’s probably going to be a fluid situation throughout the season as to which six will be out there on a given day. Obviously you want to have continuity at some point and you want to be able to go with a lineup, but until we can really work that out we do have a lot of guys that are good and are going to continue to get matches and opportunities. The beautiful thing is that it makes practice all the more valuable as the guys battle each other because they know they’ll get opportunities if they keep working hard.”

The Irish get back in action next weekend when they travel to Lexington, Ky., for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. There they will open with No. 34 Minnesota Friday before meeting No. 9 Kentucky or BYU Saturday. If Notre Dame can go undefeated in Kentucky, it would qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships Feb. 14-17.

No. 21 Notre Dame 5, No. 47 Michigan State 2

The doubles point came down to a tie-breaker at the No. 3 spot. The match on two was the first off the court as senior Billy Pecor and sophomore Eric Schnurrenberger lost to JP Mullane and Drew Lied, 6-2. Senior Greg Andrews and sophomore Alex Lawson tied it up, however, as they beat Gijs Linders and Harry Jadun, 7-5, at one. In a match that went back-and-forth, the No. 3 doubles team of seniors Matt Dooley and Ryan Bandy defeated Brett Forman and Aaron Pfister, 7-6 (9-7), to give the Irish the crucial 1-0 lead heading to singles.

In singles, freshman Eddy Covalschi was the first off the court at six, besting Jadun in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. Andrews was next to finish, defeating Pfister, 6-5, 6-0, in the No. 1 spot. Freshman Josh Hagar clinched the match for the Irish, beating Mullane, 6-5, 6-5, at No. 3.

Elsewhere, junior Wyatt McCoy fell to Forman in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, at No. 5, Schnurrenberger won at No. 4 in a third set tie-breaker against Gijs Linders, 3-6, 6-3, 6-5 and Bandy lost to Lied in three sets, 5-6, 6-4, 6-4, at two.

Singles

1: No. 22 Greg Andrews (ND) def. Aaron Pfister (MSU), 6-5, 6-0

2: Drew Lied (MSU) def. Ryan Bandy (ND), 5-6, 6-4, 6-4

3: Josh Hagar (ND) def. JP Mullane (MSU), 6-5, 6-5

4: Eric Schnurrenberger (ND) def. Gijs Linders (MSU),

5: Brett Forman (MSU) def. Wyatt McCoy (ND), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

6: Eddy Covalschi (ND) def. Jarry Jadun (MSU), 6-3, 6-1

Order of Finish: 6, 1, 3, 5, 4, 2

Doubles

1: No. 21 Greg Andrews / Alex Lawson (ND) def. Gijs Linders / Harry Jadun (MSU), 7-5

2: JP Mullane / Drew Lied def. Billy Pecor / Eric Schnurrenberger (ND), 6-2

3: Ryan Bandy / Matt Dooley def. Brett Forman / Aaron Pfister, 7-6 (9-7)

Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3

No. 29 Notre Dame 7, Toledo 0

Notre Dame swept Toledo to close out its weekend with a perfect 3-0 mark.

Lawson was first off the court with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 straight-set win over Boris Pak at six. Andrews was next as he took down Sisko, 6-4, 6-1, at one to give Notre Dame a 3-0 lead. At four, Pecor gave the Irish the win with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Meza.

In other action, sophomore Kenny Sabacinski won in straight sets (6-5, 6-3) at five over Cona, Covalschi took down Nicky Wong at three, 6-5, 6-3, and Hagar won in a third set superset at two over Singnil, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5).

The Irish rolled past the Rockets in doubles, using the experimental rules change to their advantage to take down Toledo in just 22 minutes. Andrews and Dooley couldn’t have been on the court longer than 15 minutes as they swept Cona and Wong at two, 6-0. Nicholas Montoya and Sabacinski clinched the point as they breezed past Brocker and Meza at three, 6-1. Lawson and Eric Schnurrenberger held the lead but didn’t get finish to complete the match at one against Singnil and Sisko.

Singles

1: No. 22 Greg Andrews (ND) def. Stjepan Sisko (UT), 6-4, 6-1

2: Josh Hagar (ND) def. Kittibodee “Mark” Singnil (UT), 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)

3: Eddy Covalschi (ND) def. Nicholas Wong (UT), 6-5, 6-3

4: Billy Pecor (ND) def. Roberto Meza (UT), 6-3, 6-1

5: Kenny Sabacinski (ND) def. Garrett Cona (UT), 6-5, 6-3

6: Alex Lawson (ND) def. Boris Pak (UT), 6-2, 6-1

Order of Finish: 6, 1, 4, 5, 3, 2

Doubles

1: Alex Lawson / Eric Schnurrenberger (ND) vs. Kittibodee “Mark” Singnil / Stjepan Sisko (UT), 4-3, unfinished

2: Greg Andrews / Matt Dooley (ND) def. Garrett Cona / Nicholas Wong (UT), 6-0

3: Nicholas Montoya / Kenny Sabacinski (ND) def. Ben Brocker / Roberto Meza (UT), 6-1

Order of Finish: 2, 3

–ND–