Feb. 14, 2002
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The seventh-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team will play host to Wisconsin and Purdue this weekend in the Eck Tennis Pavilion. The Irish and the Badgers will meet Saturday at 2 p.m., while Notre Dame and Purdue will play Sunday at 1 p.m.
NATIONAL TEAM INDOOR RECAP: Notre Dame took part in last weekend’s USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships, the premier national team indoor tournament. The Irish competed in the elite 16-team tournament for the first time since 1996. Each of the top 12 teams in the ITA national rankings were in the event.
Notre Dame was 1-2 in this year’s Team Indoor Championships. The Irish upset seventh-ranked Pepperdine on Thursday 4-3 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1994. The Irish won the doubles point and then split the singles matches. Senior captain Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) broke serve at 4-4 in the third set of the final match on-court to gain a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win over 54th-ranked Calle Hansen at No. 3 singles to clinch the victory. The Waves were the highest-ranked opponent to fall victim to Notre Dame since 1994.
The Irish fell 4-2 to top-ranked Georgia on Friday, but senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) upset defending NCAA singles and doubles champion Matias Boeker 6-4, 6-2 to snap his 21-match winning streak. The defending national team champion Bulldogs won the doubles point with a tiebreaker victory at No. 2 and then won three of the first five singles matches completed to secure their 30th consecutive win. Lesley Joseph, who was ranked 15th in the preseason singles rankings, clinched the win with a three-set victory at No. 4.
In the final match of the tournament, Notre Dame dropped a close 4-3 decision to fifth-ranked Mississippi. The Irish took the doubles point, but the Rebels won four of six singles matches, including three of four three-setters, to gain the win. With the match tied 3-3, 51st-ranked Kristofer Stahlberg outlasted Irish senior Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in a match that lasted over three hours and was the only match on-court for its final 45 minutes. In the loss, Taborga delivered another upset, downing 21st-ranked Alex Hartman 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
IRISH vs. BADGERS: Wisconsin carries a 3-0 record into Saturday’s match with the Irish. The Badgers, ranked 64th, have defeated Northern Illinois, DePaul and Western Michigan this season. Wisconsin will play two matches in the Eck Tennis Pavilion this weekend, also facing Ball State Sunday at 9 a.m. The Badgers are led by Danny Westerman, who is ranked 37th nationally in singles. He captured the title at last fall’s Omni Hotels Region IV Championships where two Badgers suffered straight-set, opening-round losses to Irish players. Junior Brian Farrell (Lilburn, Ga.) defeated David Hippee 6-3, 6-1 while sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France) downed Alexander Kasarov 6-3, 6-4. Also for Wisconsin, Scott Green and Scott Rutherford are ranked 56th in doubles.
Last season, the Badgers were 14-10 and finished 57th in the final rankings.
The Irish and Badgers will meet for the 57th time and for the 17th season in a row. Notre Dame leads the series 40-16 and has taken each of the past 10. The series was started in 1929 and the last Badger win was in 1991. The Irish are 10-4 against Wisconsin in the Bob Bayliss era. In 2001, Notre Dame gained a 6-1 road victory early in the season. The Irish swept the doubles matches and won at each of the top five singles spots in straight sets to gain the win.
IRISH vs. BOILERMAKERS: Purdue is 1-2 this season and ranked 53rd. The Boilermakers beat Butler and have taken losses to #7 Pepperdine and #46 Northwestern. Purdue will face Western Michigan on Saturday afternoon in a road match before coming to Notre Dame. The Boilermakers have one singles player and one doubles team ranked. Andrew Wakefield is 101st in singles, while Scott Mayer and Dan Swan are 23rd in doubles. Last season, Purdue was 14-9 and finished 55th in the nation.
The Irish and Boilermakers will meet for the 50th time on Sunday. Notre Dame holds a 41-8 advantage in the series and has won 11 in a row — each match in the Bayliss era. The teams originally met in 1937 and have played in each of the past seven seasons. In 2001, the Irish gained a tight 4-3 victory. Purdue won the doubles point, but Notre Dame rallied for four singles wins (including a pair in three sets) to take the match.
TABORGA TO MAKE BIG JUMP IN RANKINGS: After never playing the position prior to this season, senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) has been dominant in action at No. 1 singles and is expected to make a big jump from his No. 95 position in the national singles rankings when they are released again next Wednesday (Feb. 20). He has posted a 6-1 record at No. 1, including straight-set wins over defending NCAA singles and doubles champion Matias Boeker of Georgia (No. 1 in preseason singles rankings), #20 Jeremy Wurtzman of Ohio State, #21 Alex Hartman of Mississippi and #74 Jonathan Endrikat of UC-Irvine. Overall, Taborga is 8-2 in dual-match play and has won 12 of his last 15 singles matches, also including wins over then-#97 Prakash Armitraj of USC and #24 Michael Yani of Duke (avenging a defeat in fall play). All three of his losses in that span were to ranked players (#2 Harsh Mankad of Minnesota, #7 Al Garland of Pepperdine and #78 Aleksey Zharinov of Minnesota). At last year’s ITA All-American Championships, Taborga defeated Stanford’s K.J. Hippensteel, the current national No. 1, denying Hippensteel of the title he won in both 1999 and 2001. Taborga is 15-7 overall this season with three losses coming in match tiebreakers and the other four coming against nationally-ranked players. He advanced to the quarterfinals in last fall’s Region IV Championships before falling to Mankad, a member of the Indian Davis Cup team. Taborga is 14-0 when winning the first set this season. In 2001, Taborga was 23-12 playing No. 2 singles and was 5-3 against ranked players.
SENSATIONAL SCOTT: Sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France) has been consistently superb in singles action this season. He holds an 18-2 mark, including a 10-0 record in dual matches, playing mostly No. 5. Scott registered an upset of then-#12 Phil Metz of Ohio State in last fall’s Region IV Championships, eliminating the top-ranked and second-seeded player in the draw. In his career, Scott is 21-2 in dual matches and 35-7 overall in singles.
THE ‘ICO CONNECTION: Senior Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and freshman Brent D’Amico (Centennial, Colo.) made their doubles debut together against Northwestern on Feb. 4. After dropping that decision, the pair reeled off three straight wins in the team indoors, in which the Irish faced three top-10 squads. Their first win together came in a tiebreaker against Pepperdine, which clinched the doubles point for the Irish and helped Notre Dame to a 4-3 win. D’Amico is 5-1 in spring doubles play and 7-2 overall.
HOME AGAIN: Notre Dame begins a four-match homestand this weekend. After that stretch, the Irish will finish the season by playing five of their last seven scheduled matches on the road. In addition, Notre Dame will travel to the Pacific Coast Doubles tournament and the Blue/Gray National Tennis Classic.
FOR THE FIRST TIME: Notre Dame’s victory over Pepperdine in the national team indoors made the Waves the 163rd team defeated in the 80-year history of Irish tennis. It also marked the 82nd team defeated by Notre Dame in the Bob Bayliss era (out of 90 opponents). An Irish win over Mississippi would have added another team to that list.
BAYLISS ENTERS HALL: Bob Bayliss was one of six individuals inducted into the University of Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 10 in the Jepson Alumni Center in Richmond, Va.. Bayliss, who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1966 and a master’s degree in 1971 from the university, played No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles as a senior on the Spider tennis team. Among the other inductees was Tim Finchem, current commissioner of the Professional Golf Association, who was a freshman when Bayliss was a senior at Richmond.
KEEPING UP WITH NOTRE DAME TENNIS: For the fastest results of Notre Dame tennis matches, call the Notre Dame sports information hotline at (219) 631-3000 and choose #8. The hotline provides schedule and results information for varsity sports and serves as a supplement to the game recaps and weekly releases provided on the official athletic website at www.und.com. The hotline is the first medium updated with the results of each Notre Dame tennis match. In addition, media members may be added to the sports information e-mail release list by contacting Bo Rottenborn at Rottenborn.2@nd.edu.