Feb. 1, 2007
MADISON, Wisc. – The No. 4 Notre Dame women’s tennis team opened the 2007 ITA National Team Indoor Championships with a 5-2 victory over No. 18 Clemson on Thursday at Nielsen Stadium. With the victory, the Irish remain undefeated at 3-0, while the Tigers drop to 2-1.
Notre Dame won the doubles point and got straight-set victories at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5, as well as a three-set triumph at No. 4 to secure the win. The Tigers recorded a straight-set triumph at No. 6 and a three-set victory at No. 2 to provide the final margin.
Senior #41 Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, NV) clinched the victory for Notre Dame with a 6-1, 6-3 straight-set win over #72 Carol Salge at No. 1 singles. Catrina Thompson improved to 8-3 on the season and 3-0 in dual action. She has yet to drop a set in her three dual matches this season.
Sophomore Kelcy Tefft’s (Enid, OK) victory at No. 4 really turned the tide of the match. With the Irish trailing 2-1 and Tefft already down a set (6-4), the sophomore rallied to take the next two sets, 6-1, 6-4, to bring Notre Dame even at 2-2. She improved to 7-4 on the season and 2-1 in dual action.
Christian Thompson seemed to ride that momentum at No. 3 and crushed Estefania Balda in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0, regaining the lead for the Irish at 3-2. She evened her record at 5-5 on the year and 2-1 in dual action.
After Catrina Thompson closed out Clemson, freshman Cosmina Ciobanu (Brea, CA) capped off the evening with a 6-4, 7-5 straight-set victory over Maria Brito at No. 5. Ciobanu improved to 13-4 on the campaign and 3-0 in dual action. She has won each of her 13 matches this season in straight sets.
Fellow freshman #31 Colleen Rielley (Overland Park, KS) and sophomore Katie Potts (Brookfield, WI) dropped their respective matches at No. 2 and No. 6 singles. Rielley lost a three-set affair to Ani Mijacika, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, while Potts lost in straight sets to Federica Van Adrichem, 7-5, 6-4. For Reilley, the defeat was her second consecutive three-set loss. She falls to 12-5 overall and 1-2 in dual action. Potts’ loss was the first for her in three dual matches (2-1) and puts her overall record at 9-5.
The Irish grabbed a 1-0 lead after taking the first two doubles matches from Clemson (No. 2 and No. 1).
The 11th-ranked Thompson twins jumped out to an early 2-0 lead at No. 1 doubles over Mijacika and Van Adrichem. The Clemson duo narrowed the deficit to 4-3 before breaking the Thompsons and then holding its own serve to grab a 5-4 lead. The twins answered back and even the match at 5-5, but Clemson took a 7-6 advantage only to see the Thompsons regain an 8-7 lead before closing out Mijacika and Van Adrichem, 9-7.
Fifth-ranked Buck and Tefft fell behind 2-1 early in their match with Salge and Hadziselimovic at No. 2, but proceeded to win the next five points to race out to a 6-2 advantage. While the Tiger’s duo did cut the lead to 6-3, Buck and Tefft put the match away after taking the next two games to secure an 8-3 victory. With the win, the Irish duo improves to 11-3 overall and 3-0 in dual action. Buck and Tefft have posted an impressive 45-9 mark over the past two seasons in doubles.
Brito and Luc also took an early lead on Ciobanu and Krisik at No. 3, 2-1, but the freshman tandem did not panic and took a 5-4 lead. At that point, the Irish clinched the double point so the match was immediately pushed to a 7-7 tiebreaker and the Tigers walked away with an 8-7 (5) victory.
Notre Dame advances to tomorrow’s quarterfinals to face No. 10 Baylor. First-serve is slated for 3:30 p.m. (CT).
#4 NOTRE DAME 5, #18 CLEMSON 2
Singles
No. 1 – #41 Catrina Thompson (ND) def. #72 Carol Salge (CU) – 6-1, 6-3
No. 2 – Ani Mijacika (CU) def. #31 Colleen Rielley (ND) – 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
No. 3 – Christian Thompson (ND) def. Estefania Balda (CU) – 6-1, 6-0
No. 4 – Kelcy Tefft (ND) def. Ini Hadziselimovic (CU) – 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
No. 5 – Cosmina Ciobanu (ND) def. Maria Brito (CU) – 6-4, 7-5
No. 6 – Federica Van Adrichem (CU) def. Katie Potts (ND) – 7-5, 6-4
Order of Finish: 6, 2, 4, 3, 1*, 5
Doubles
No. 1 – #11 Thompson/Thompson (ND) def. Mijacika / Van Adrichem (CU) – 9-7
No. 2 – #5 Buck/Tefft (ND) def. Salge/ Hadziselimovic (CU) – 8-3
No. 3 -Brito/Luc (CU) def. Ciobanu/Krisik (ND) – 8-7 (5)
Order of Finish: 2, 1*, 3
— ND —