Jan. 26, 2004
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) jumped 49 spots to a No. 14 national singles ranking, while the University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team is 21st in the preseason Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, released earlier this month. Salas is just the fifth player in Irish history to be ranked among the nation’s top 15, while the Irish are in the preseason top 25 for the 14th consecutive season.
Freshman Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) is 88th in singles, while Salas and sophomore Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) are 39th in doubles. This is the first set of team rankings for the 2003-04 season, but the second individual listing, following the Sept. ’03 preseason rankings.
Salas, 63rd in the preseason and second in the Midwest Region rankings releasd last month, was 12-6 in the fall season with eight victories over ranked foes to her credit. In addition to being the runner-up in the regional indoor tournament to #4 Cristelle Grier of Northwestern, she became the first Irish player in four years to earn invitations to the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam, the All-American Championships and the National Indoor Championships. She beat three ranked players to qualify for the former event, in which Salas upset #29 Dianne Hollands of Arizona. She then defeated #15 Luana Magnani of USC at No. 1 in helping the Irish to a 4-3 exhibition triumph over the Trojans, who finished last season ranked fifth nationally. Four of Salas’ six defeats came at the hands of top-10 opponents, while another was against the nation’s No. 27 player. A year ago, Salas made the jump to the top of the Notre Dame singles lineup, playing Nos. 1 and 2 all season. She finished 24-15 and was ranked sixth in the Midwest Region and 98th nationally, earning a berth in the NCAA Singles Championship. She holds a 83-31 (.728) career singles record.
Salas is the highest-ranked Irish player in singles since current assistant coach Michelle Dasso finished her career in 2001 at fifth. The only other Notre Dame student-athletes who were ranked among the top 15 singles players in college tennis at any point during their careers were Melissa Harris (’92), Wendy Crabtree (’96), and Jennifer Hall (’99).
Christian Thompson posted a 12-5 record in her first collegiate fall, highlighted by an eight-match winning streak in October. She was 8-2 against Midwest Region opponents, with her lone defeats coming against Grier and Illinois’ No. 2 player, Tiffany Eklov. Thompson, 11th in the Midwest Region rankings, took third place in the white flight of the Kentucky Fall Classic before advancing through qualifying to reach the quarterfinals of the main draw in the Midwest Championships. She beat Bernadette Bayani 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 in aiding Notre Dame’s win against USC. Thompson, who is the 14th-highest ranked freshman in the country, came to Notre Dame after being ranked the 11th-best 18-and-under player in the country last year — and fifth among current college freshmen. She also has been ranked among the top 1,000 players in the world in singles.
Salas and Connelly won six of their eight matches together in the fall, with their lone defeats coming against #2 Magley/Reyes of Florida and #28 Schlukebir/Tran of Indiana. The Irish pair reached the semifinals of the adidas Invitational and the quarters of the Midwest Championships. Salas and Connelly, listed 36th in the preseason national rankings and fifth in the Midwest Region listing, won at No. 2 to clinch the doubles point vs. USC. A season ago, the team was 17-9, including 14-7 in the spring, and finished 59th in the national rankings. Salas and Connelly, ranked 11th in the region at the close of the campaign, upset a pair of top-15 teams in the NCAA team tournament to finish the season. The Irish pair was 5-1 as the final match on-court with the doubles point still undecided.
Senior co-captain Caylan Leslie (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar H.S.) was one of 12 players who were ranked in the preseason, but saw little or no action in the fall and thus were listed as “insufficient data” to be listed in this set of rankings. Previously 26th in singles, she sustained an injury in the first event of the season, causing her to miss the remainder of the fall after playing just two matches. A year ago, Leslie was 15-8 in dual matches, including 9-5 at No. 1, en route to earning a berth to the NCAA Singles Championship and peaking at 33rd in the national rankings. She had nine victories over ranked opponents and was named the team’s MVP.
Notre Dame returns nine monogram winners, including six starters, from last year’s team that was 16-9, won its fifth BIG EAST championship in eight years, gained a 10th NCAA tournament berth in 11 seasons, and finished ranked 21st. Since the Irish earned their first-ever Division I national ranking at 25th in the preseason of the 1990-91 campaign, Notre Dame has been listed among the nation’s top 25 teams every year.
Eighteen of the 20 Irish dual-match opponents are listed in the preseason rankings, including four in the top 10 and eight in the top 25. All four of the contests vs. top-10 teams will be away from home: vs. #4 Duke (March 10) and #10 Tennessee (March 13) in Wikaloa, Hawaii; at #9 North Carolina (March 28); and at #8 William & Mary (April 10). Among the top teams to come to Notre Dame are #14 Northwestern (April 15), #22 Miami (April 4), and #23 Illinois (March 4). The Irish also travel to #17 Virginia Commonwealth (Feb. 13) and #27 Texas (April 12). Notre Dame is the second-highest of 10 Midwest Region teams in the rankings, behind only the Wildcats. The Irish are tops of the three BIG EAST Conference teams in the rankings, ahead of the Hurricanes and Virginia Tech (67th).
Notre Dame will get a shot at the No. 1 doubles team this season, as Jessica Rush and Cristelle Grier of Northwestern hold that distinction, leading four top-15 duos on the Irish schedule (also #5 Amanda Johnson/Tory Zawacki of Duke, #10 Jennifer McGaffigan/Cynthia Goulet of Illinois, and #11 Megan Muth/Amy Wei of William & Mary). Four top-15 singles players — #4 Grier, #5 Johnson, #11 Megan Bradley of Miami, and #13 Tammy Encina of Tennessee — are also on the Irish dual-match slate.
The ITA releases 15 sets of team rankings (released bi-weekly until Feb. 24 and weekly thereafter) and 10 individual listings (one in September, one in January, then bi-weekly from Feb. 24 till April 20 and weekly thereafter). They are based on coaches voting for the first part of the season, but both then switch to computer rankings (first individual computer rankings released Feb. 24 and first team computer rankings on March 23).
Notre Dame will begin its spring season on Thursday at #34 Michigan prior to opening its home schedule this weekend with matches against #48 Ohio State on Saturday and #62 Wisconsin on Sunday.