March 14, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team will look to get back on the winning track on Sunday when the No. 36 Irish welcome Boston College and Detroit for a morning-night doubleheader at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
The Irish spent Spring Break, which featured a week-long break from competition, training in Arizona. The respite gave Notre Dame a chance to recoup from road losses to Virginia Tech and Louisville to open the Atlantic Coast Conference season.
“Clearly we were disappointed about the results last weekend,” head coach Ryan Sachire said.”Both Virginia Tech and Louisville are high quality teams, and they exposed some aspects of our games that we needed to address. We have had great practices since being in Arizona, and we are confident that we will leave here a better team.”
The Irish (6-5, 0-2 ACC) will face the Eagles (4-6, 0-1 ACC) at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday in Notre Dame’s first ACC home match of the season. Boston College fell to the Hokies 7-0 on Friday. The Irish will then face Detroit (4-7) at 5 p.m. EDT, following the women’s team’s 1 p.m. EDT match with Boston College.
“We are obviously very excited for Sunday’s match against Boston College,” Sachire said, “To have the opportunity to play a traditional rival in the first home ACC match of the season is a special treat, and we are hopeful that it will be a great match.”
IRISH NOTABLES
AGAINST THE EAGLES: Notre Dame is 4-0 all time in the series with Boston College. Last season, Notre Dame capped the regular season with a 7-0 win over the Eagles in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
A LOOK AT BC: The Eagles enter the weekend with a 4-5 record and will face Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., on Friday before visiting the Irish on Sunday. Boston College lost two in a row heading into the weekend (6-1 to Brown and 5-2 to UC Irvine).
TANGLING WITH THE TITANS: The Irish have never fallen to Detroit in 21 all-time meetings. Sunday’s will be the first meeting between the teams under head coach Ryan Sachire. Detroit is one of three programs against which the Irish hold an undefeated record in more than 20 meetings (Marquette 49-0; DePaul, 27-0).
SIZING UP THE TITANS: Detroit is 4-7 on the year with wins over Wayne State, Montana State-Billings, Post University and Mount St. Mary’s (Md.). The Irish and Titans share a common opponent in Ball State. Notre Dame defeated the Cardinals 7-0 earlier in the season, while BSU defeated Detroit 6-1.
RANKINGS UPDATE: In the latest ITA team poll the Irish slipped from No. 23 to No. 36 after losses at then-No. 44 Virginia Tech and No. 33 Louisville. After defeating the Irish 4-3 on Friday, the Hokies went on to upset No. 2 Duke, 6-1.
A SINGULAR PERFORMER: In the latest ITA singles poll, junior Quentin Monaghan jumped two spots to No. 22. Monaghan won seven straight matches at No. 1 singles from Jan. 31 to March 8, when he fell to then-No. 5 Seb Steifelmeyer (current No. 1) of Louisville. Monaghan is now 8-2 in dual matches this season, and 17-5 overall.
DOUBLES DOMINANCE: Doubles partners Billy Pecor and Alex Lawson make up the only ACC duo to be ranked in the ITA top 10 at No. 8. With Eddy Covalschi and Josh Hagar at No. 14, the Irish are the only team in the country with two doubles pairs in the ITA top 20. Covalschi and Hagar jumped five spots in this week’s poll after posting a 2-1 record at No. 1 doubles in the last two weeks, including a victory over No. 14 Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski of Illinois.
A WINNING COMBO: Seniors Dougie Barnard and Billy Pecor have found themselves teamed up on the doubles court recently, as the Irish have seen some new lineup combinations with junior Eric Schnurrenberger recovering from injury. The senior duo is 3-0 at the No. 3 doubles slot, including 2-0 in conference play. Pecor’s regular partner, Alex Lawson, has seen action with Quentin Monaghan at No. 2 doubles; the pair are 1-1 in three matches.
SCORING FORMAT CHANGE: The Atlantic Coast Conference has moved to re-implement the regular scoring format utilized in 2014. Earlier this season, matches were played with no-ad scoring, based on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s recommendations for increasing pace of play. All conference matches will once again include an eight-game pro-set for the doubles point with a tiebreak at 7-7, and advantage scoring will be used. For men’s play, all doubles and singles matches will be played out unless agreed upon by both head coaches prior to the start of the match.
Joanne Norell, Media Relations Assistant
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