April 5, 2002
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – After six weeks and eight consecutive matches on the road, the eighth-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team finally will get the opportunity to compete in friendly surroundings when it plays host to No. 41 Southern Methodist Sunday at 10 a.m. (CDT) at the Courtney Tennis Center. The match will feature two NCAA qualifiers from last season — Notre Dame reached the second round of the 2001 NCAA Championships, while the Mustangs advanced all the way to the semifinal round. This season’s contest also will spotlight two of the top 15 doubles teams in the nation, as the fourth-ranked Irish senior tandem of Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) and Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) get set to square off with the No. 13 SMU duo of Johan Brunstrom and Eric Cohn.
LAST WEEK’S ACTION: Notre Dame split two matches last week, falling at No. 46 Michigan, 4-3, on March 27, but rebounding to topple 29th-ranked Indiana State by a 5-2 count three days later. In the UM match, the Wolverines claimed the doubles point and the top three singles contests to pull off the upset. Sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France) did record his second win over a ranked opponent this season, picking off No. 124 Greg Novak at the No. 5 flight.
Notre Dame recovered well at Indiana State after the Sycamores won the doubles point to take the early lead. The Irish rallied to win five of the six singles matches, with the top four flights all going three sets. Senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) provided the clinching win for Notre Dame, erasing a 2-4 deficit in the final set to earn a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 triumph over ISU’s Stefan Hirn. Senior Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) added his sixth victory over a ranked opponent this year, downing 56th-ranked Vedran Vidovic by a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 score.
IRISH vs. MUSTANGS: Southern Methodist currently stands at 13-11 this season (2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) and has won two consecutive matches entering Sunday’s contest. The Mustangs are ranked 41st in the nation, after peaking at No. 8 on Jan. 30. However, four consecutive losses, including three in a row at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Louisville, Ky., dropped SMU from its lofty perch. Still, the Mustangs have defeated five ranked opponents this season, most recently dispatching No. 55 LSU, 4-3, on Wednesday afternoon in Baton Rouge, La. SMU also owns a win over then-No. 17 Texas Christian by a 4-3 margin back on Jan. 30.
Notre Dame and Southern Methodist have three common opponents this year — Furman, Miami (Fla.) and Georgia. The Irish are 2-1 against this trio, defeating both Furman (7-0) and Miami (6-1) while bowing to top-ranked Georgia (4-2). Meanwhile, the Mustangs are 1-2 against this group, defeating Furman (5-2), but losing to Miami (5-2) and Georgia (6-1). In addition, SMU has played Kentucky (losing 4-2), whom Notre Dame will face April 13 in its final home match. Conversely, the Irish already have blanked Tulsa (4-0), while the Mustangs are slated to visit the Golden Hurricane April 14.
SMU senior Krystian Pfeiffer is the only Mustang singles player currently ranked, checking in at No. 29 in the latest computer survey. Pfeiffer is 16-6 in singles play this season, all in the No. 1 slot, and he is expected to face the No. 18 singles player in Irish senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia), which will mark Pfeiffer’s eighth match this season against a top-20 player — he is 3-4 in such matches.
The Mustangs also boast the No. 13 doubles team in the country in 6-foot-5 sophomore Johan Brunstrom and junior transfer Eric Cohn. The pair is 12-6 in dual match doubles this year (16-8 overall) and will be facing the fourth-ranked Irish duo of Taborga and senior Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) Sunday in the No. 1 doubles position. It will be a rematch of their tense semifinal contest at the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships last November in Dallas, a match won by the SMU pair, 9-8 (7-5 in the tiebreak).
Sunday’s match will be just the third all-time between Notre Dame and Southern Methodist, with the series deadlocked at one win apiece. In their first encounter on Jan 20, 1990, the Irish downed the Mustangs, 6-3, beginning a 14-match winning streak for Notre Dame. SMU returned the favor last season, squeezing past the Irish, 4-3, on April 8, 2001 in Dallas. That match ultimately came down to the No. 1 singles contest, which was won by sixth-ranked Genius Chidzikwe of SMU, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, over Smith.
REMARKABLE RANKINGS: The Irish have had a number of notable rankings this season in both the team and individual Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings. On March 13 and 24, Notre Dame was ranked fourth in the team rankings — the second-highest ranking in school history. The only time the Irish were ranked higher was in the final poll of the 1992 season, when Notre Dame was No. 3 after losing in the NCAA final. The Irish, currently eighth in the latest set of computer rankings, have been ranked in the national top 10 in each poll this season. Notre Dame has never been in the top 10 in each set of rankings throughout a season.
Senior Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) is ranked 18th in this week’s national singles rankings after peaking at No. 11 two weeks ago, a ranking which was the highest by an Irish singles player since Ryan Sachire finished the 2000 season ranked 11th. Taborga also is just the third player in school history to be ranked as high as No. 11 nationally in singles. Sachire was ranked as high as No. 2 nationally and David DiLucia (’92) is the only Notre Dame player to be ranked No. 1 in the nation in singles. Also ranked in singles for the Irish are sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France), who is 79th this week, and senior Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.), who checks in at No. 87. Smith was ranked 95th in the first spring poll, and returned this week after toppling his sixth ranked opponent of the season (No. 56 Vedran Vidovic of Indiana State) last Saturday.
Taborga and Smith climbed one spot to No. 4 in the doubles rankings, which is the highest doubles ranking for either player in their Irish careers.
ROAD WARRIORS: After playing half of their first 14 matches at home, the Irish hit the road for eight consecutive matches, a stretch that ended with last Saturday’s 5-2 at No. 29 Indiana State. The Irish return home Sunday to take on SMU at 1 p.m. (CDT) and follow that up a week later, welcoming ninth-ranked Kentucky April 13 at 10 a.m. After the brief homestand, Notre Dame goes on the road for its regular-season finale (April 14 at Ball State) and then travels to Miami, Fla. for the BIG EAST Championships April 19-21.
BOTTOM FEEDERS: Senior Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.) and sophomore Matthew Scott (Paris, France) have been consistently brilliant at the bottom of the Irish singles lineup, combining for a sparkling 30-3 (.909) dual-match record this season. Two of those losses came to Illinois’ Michael Calkins, who snapped Scott’s 14-match winning streak March 7 with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win at No. 5 and then ended Laflin’s 16-match unbeaten streak March 17, 7-6, 6-1, also at No. 5. Laflin is 17-1 this year, playing mostly at No. 6. In 2001, he was 12-2 in singles. Over the past three seasons, Laflin has won 31 of his last 34 singles matches. In his career, he has posted a 26-4 (.867) mark at No. 6, including an 11-0 record this spring. Scott is 30-4 (.882) in career dual matches, including 19-2 this season. He is 5-0 at No. 4, 18-3 at No. 5 and 7-1 at No. 6 in his career.
SUPER SENIORS: Much of this spring’s success for the Irish is due to the play of its senior class. Andrew Laflin (Tampa, Fla.), James Malhame (Douglaston, N.Y.), Ashok Raju (Morgantown, W. Va.), Aaron Talarico (Laguna Beach, Calif.), Javier Taborga (La Paz, Bolivia) and Casey Smith (Leawood, Kan.) have combined to post a majority of the Irish wins this season. They are a combined 52-20 (.722) in singles this spring, accounting for more than half of the team’s singles victories and also nine clinching wins. In doubles, every clinching victory except one this year has had at least one senior on the doubles team responsible for it. In the current lineup, four of the six singles positions and five of the six doubles slots are filled by the Class of 2002.
FINISH WHAT YA STARTED: The top eight singles players for the Irish have been very successful when winning the first set this season. They have combined for a 125-8 (.940) record in 2001-02 when taking the opening set. Particularly successful have been Luis Haddock-Morales (21-0, 36-0 career), Andrew Laflin (15-0, 30 in a row), Matthew Scott (25-1), Javier Taborga (21-0) and Aaron Talarico (16-1).
KEEPING UP WITH NOTRE DAME TENNIS: For the fastest results of Notre Dame tennis matches, call the Notre Dame sports information hotline at (574) 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, or Chris Masters at masters.5@nd.edu.