May 21, 2004
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NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships
Dan Magill Tennis Complex * Athens, Ga.
Monday, May 24 * Singles First Round, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, May 25 * Singles Second Round/Doubles First Round, 10 a.m.
Wednesday, May 26 * Singles Round of 16/Doubles Round of 16, 10 a.m.
Thursday, May 27 * Singles Quarterfinals/Doubles Quarterfinals, 1 p.m.
Friday, May 28 * Singles Semifinals/Doubles Semifinals, 1 p.m.
Saturday, May 29 * Singles Final/Doubles Final, 1 p.m.
THREE IRISH PLAYERS HEAD TO GEORGIA FOR NCAA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: Irish senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) will open play in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Singles Championship on Monday, while twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.), the first all-freshman team to participate in the event since 1998, will take part in the NCAA Doubles Championship when it commences a day later. Both tournaments will be contested at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. It marks the 10th time in the last 12 years that Notre Dame has had at least one entrant in both NCAA individual championships.
IRISH IN THE NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP: The NCAA Singles Championship is a 64-player single-elimination tournament of the top players in the country. It begins on Monday, May 24 and proceeds with one round per day until the final, slated for May 29. The 16 seeded players, as well as any competitors that win two matches to reach the round of 16, automatically assure themselves of All-America honors. The top 20 in the final ITA rankings also are All-Americans.
This is the 14th time in the last 15 years that Notre Dame has had at least one player qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship. CeCe Cahill was the first Irish player to qualify for the tournament, in 1989. Melissa Harris became the first Notre Dame player to win a match in the event, beating Northwestern’s Lindsay Matthews in three sets in ’91. Jennifer Hall reached the round of 16 in 1996, which stood as the best result by an Irish competitor before current assistant coach Michelle Dasso advanced to the semifinals in 2001 before losing to eventual national champion Laura Granville of Stanford, who is now ranked among the top 50 in the world. Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) is taking part in the NCAA singles for the second consecutive year, becoming the sixth Irish player to participate multiple times, joining Dasso, Hall, Harris, Wendy Crabtree, and Tracy Barton. Last year, Salas fell 7-5, 6-0 to Northwestern’s Cristelle Grier in the first round, while Caylan Leslie (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar H.S.), who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury last September but is expected to return for a fifth year of action, lost 6-4, 1-6, 6-0 to Candice Fuchs of William & Mary. No Irish player has won a match in the event since Dasso’s run in ’01.
IRISH IN THE NCAA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP: The NCAA Doubles Championship is a 32-team single-elimination tournament of the top duos in the country. It begins on Tuesday, May 25 and proceeds with one round per day until the final, slated for May 29. The eight seeded teams, as well as any pairs that win two matches to reach the quarterfinals, automatically assure themselves of All-America honors. The top 10 in the final ITA rankings also are All-Americans.
After not having a team participate for the first time in 11 years last season, Notre Dame will be represented once again in 2004 with twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) becoming the first all-freshman team since 1998 to earn a berth. The first Irish duo to participate was Wendy Crabtree and Lisa Tholen in 1993. Though they fell in the opening round, the same pair upset the eighth seed and reached the quarterfinals in 1994. In 1998, Tiffany Gates and Jennifer Hall duplicated that feat before losing to the tournament’s second seed. Hall and current assistant coach Michelle Dasso advanced to the round of eight in ’99 before losing to the top-seeded pair. The last Notre Dame team to participate was Katie Cunha and Lindsey Green, which lost to the second-seeded team in 2002. The last pair to win a match in the tournament was Dasso and Becky Varnum, who reached the round of 16 in ’01.
THOMPSONS FIRST ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM IN NCAA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP SINCE 1998: Twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) comprise the first all-freshman doubles team to gain an invitation to the NCAA Doubles Championship since Martina Nedelkova and Andrea Ondrisova of VCU in 1998. The Thompsons join Wendy Crabtree (four-time participant from 1993-96) as the lone Irish rookies to participate in the NCAA doubles tournament.
SALAS EARNS SECOND CONSECUTIVE BID TO NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) earned a bid to the NCAA Singles Championship for the second consecutive season. She is the sixth Notre Dame player to earn multiple bids to the NCAA Singles Championship during her career, joining four-time qualifiers Michelle Dasso (1998-2001) and Jennifer Hall (1996-99), three-time participant Wendy Crabtree (1993-95), and Melissa Harris (1991-92) and Tracy Barton (1990-91), who both qualified twice.
SALAS NAMED REGIONAL SENIOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR, WINS MIDWEST’S CISSIE LEARY SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD: Irish senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) won two of the three Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional awards she was eligible for when the honors were announced earlier this week. Salas was named the Midwest Region’s ITA Senior Player of the Year, while also winning the ITA/Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award. The former honor recognizes the top senior in the region, which includes all but one (Penn State) of the Big Ten teams, as well as various other squads from Ind?-iana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. The latter accolade recognizes a player who displays inspiring dedication and commitment to her team, which has enhanced her team’s performance and exemplified the spirit of college tennis. Salas and the winners from each of the other seven regions are now eligible for the national awards, which will be presented May 23 in Athens, Ga. The other regional Senior Players of the Year were Old Dominion’s Nataly Cahana, Duke’s Amanda Johnson, Florida State’s Anca Dumitrescu, Oklahoma’s Anda Perianu, Texas A&M’s Jessica Roland, California’s Raquel Kops-Jones, and San Diego State’s Katalina Romero. Other regional recipients of the Cissie Leary award were Harvard’s Susanna Lingman, Furman’s Mary Neill Hagood, Miami’s Megan Bradley, BYU’s Lu Oswald, Rice’s Karen Chao, California’s Jody Scheldt, and Arizona State’s Cindy Sureephong. Salas and Johnson were the only players to win two awards, as the Blue Devil was both the Senior Player of the Year and the winner of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship in the Southeast Region.
Salas is the third Notre Dame student-athlete (all since 1996) to be named the Midwest Region’s top senior player, joining Jennifer Hall (’96) and current assistant coach Michelle Dasso (’01), who also won the national honor. Salas joins Kelly Zalinski (’00) as Notre Dame winners of the Cissie Leary Award.
SALAS COMPLETES PARTICIPATION IN GRAND SLAM: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.), a qualifier in the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam last fall, became just the fourth player in Irish history to qualify for each of the grand slam tournaments in a season. Both current assistant coach Michelle Dasso (1998-99 & 2000-01) and Wendy Crabtree (1993-94 & 1994-95) accomplished the feat twice, while Jennifer Hall did it in 1997-98. Salas won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in September and then gained entrance to the 32-player ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships via her runner-up result in the ITA Midwest Championships. She lost in the first round in both, but won one consolation match at the All-Americans.
THOMPSONS BECOME JUST SECOND AND THIRD IRISH FRESHMEN TO PLAY IN NCAA DOUBLES: Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) are the first all-freshman Notre Dame doubles team to earn a bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship. Prior to this year, only one Irish rookie, Wendy Crabtree in 1993, had ever gained an invitation to the tournament.
THOMPSONS FIRST ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM TO PLAY No. 1 FOR IRISH SINCE 1993: Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) played No. 1 doubles all spring, compiling a 12-11 record. It marked the first time two rookies had played No. 1 doubles for Notre Dame since Wendy Crabtree and Holyn Lord did so in 1993, winning in their only appearance together at the position.
Christian Thompson FIRST ROOKIE IN TOP TWO OF SINGLES LINEUP SINCE 1998: Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) played No. 2 singles for the Irish all spring, compiling a 13-8 record. It marked the first time a freshman had played in the top two singles positions for Notre Dame since current assistant coach Michelle Dasso was 21-3 at No. 2 as a rookie in 1998.
SALAS vs. NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) has previously faced 17 other NCAA singles qualifiers in collegiate action, including 16 of them this season. In 2003-04, more than half of her matches — 22 of 42 — were against players that earned invitations or were named alternates to the NCAA Singles Championship. Salas was 9-13 in those contests this season. In her career, she holds a 14-17 mark against the field and alternates.
THOMPSONS vs. NCAA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD: Freshmen Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) played nine matches this season against teams that earned bids to the NCAA Doubles Championship, winning twice. Additionally, the Thompsons faced five other teams featuring one player who is in the NCAA doubles tourney, being victorious on three occasions.
THOMPSONS HIGHEST-RANKED ALL-FRESHMAN DOUBLES TEAM IN NATION: Freshman twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) moved up 14 spots to 36th in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association national doubles rankings, remaining the highest-ranked all-freshman team in the nation. Iowa freshmen Hillary Mintz and Meg Racette moved into the rankings at 60th to be the only other all-rookie team in the rankings. The Thompsons are 21-16 this season, including 12-11 at No. 1. The Thompsons have four wins over ranked foes, including a 9-8 (7-5) victory against the nation’s second-ranked team of Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush of Northwestern on April 15.
THOMPSONS UPSET NATION’S #2 DOUBLES TEAM: Freshman twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) defeated the #2 doubles team in the nation, Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush of Northwestern, in dual-match play at No. 1 on April 15 at the Courtney Tennis Center. The Thompsons were victorious 9-8 (7-5), winning in a tiebreaker for the first time in five tries. The last time an Irish team upset one of the nation’s top two doubles teams was Feb. 17, 2001, when current assistant coach Michelle Dasso and Becky Varnum, ranked fifth, beat Pepperdine’s top-ranked pair of Ipek Senoglu and Paola Palencia 8-5 at No. 1 in 6-1 Irish victory in consolation play of the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
SALAS, THOMPSONS EARN BIG EAST ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) and freshman Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) were both named to the BIG EAST Conference all-tournament team in singles, while Thompson and her twin sister, Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.), gained mention in doubles, when the league awards were announced earlier this month. The teams were determined by voting of conference head coaches, who were prohibited from voting for their own players.
This is just the second year the BIG EAST has named an all-tournament team, and Salas is one of four players (also Miami’s Megan Bradley, Mari Toro, and Melissa Applebaum) to earn singles honors on both occasions. Christian Thompson is the lone freshman on this year’s singles all-tournament squad, joining Miami’s Melissa Applebaum as the only rookies ever to be so honored. The Thompsons are the first all-freshman doubles team to earn all-BIG EAST Championship mention.
SALAS NAMED TEAM MVP, ROCKNE STUDENT-ATHLETE: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) swept the two major team awards, announced last month. For the second time in three seasons, she was named the Irish MVP, while also winning the Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award for the second consecutive year. Salas, who is 24-17 and ranked 22nd nationally in singles, was voted the most valuable player by her teammates, while the latter award honors her as the squad’s top student.
SALAS, THOMPSONS ALL-AMERICA CANDIDATES: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) and freshman twins Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) all have opportunities to earn All-America accolades with strong performances at the NCAAs. Salas is a candidate in singles, where one must 1) earn one of the 16 seds in the NCAA Singles Championship; 2) win two matches to reach the round of 16 in the NCAA Singles Championship; or 3) finish in the top 20 of the final ITA national rankings. It is unlikely Salas, currently ranked 22nd after being as high as 10th, will earn a seed in the NCAA singles tournament, so she will need to fulfill one of the final two criteria. The Thompsons, ranked 36th and the only all-freshman team to gain entry to the NCAA Doubles Championship, figure to need to win a pair of matches to reach the quarterfinals of that event to gain All-America honors. It is unlikely that they have much chance of fulfilling either of the other two ways to become an All-American: earn one of the eight seeds in the NCAA doubles tournament or finish among the top 10 in the ITA national doubles rankings.
Since moving up to the Division I level in 1985-86, Notre Dame student-athletes have earned singles All-America honors on five occasions, and doubles accolades four times. Most recently, current assistant coach Michelle Dasso was a double All-American in her final season, fulfilling all three criteria in singles and a pair in doubles, along with Becky Varnum (’02).
SALAS AN ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA NOMINEE: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) was one of three Irish female student-athletes nominated as CoSIDA Academic All-America candidates this month in the at-large program. Each school is eligible to nominate a total of three male and three female student-athletes in the category, which encompasses athletes from 25 sports, including 12 Irish varsity programs: fencing (M/W), golf (M/W), ice hockey (M), lacrosse (M/W), rowing (W), swimming & diving (M/W), and tennis (M/W). Other Notre Dame nominees were fencer Alicja Kryczalo, hockey players Rob Globke and Cory McLean, and lacrosse players Stewart Crosland and Meredith Simon. After voting of members of the College Sports Information Directors of America in the district, the Academic All-District V team will be released on May 27, and those honorees will be sent on to the national ballot. The CoSIDA Academic All-America team will be announced June 17. Salas, who has been ranked as high as 10th in the national singles rankings, holds a 3.630 cumulative grade-point average as a preprofessional studies/anthropology major in the College of Arts & Letters. She is trying to join Wendy Crabtree (1996, third team) and Jennifer Hall (1999, third team) as Irish women’s tennis Academic All-Americans.
SALAS HONORED WITH BYRON V. KANALEY AWARD: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) was one of five Notre Dame seniors honored with the Byron V. Kanaley Award last month. The Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor presented to student-athletes, has been given each year since 1927 to senior monogram athletes who have been most exemplary as both students and leaders. Chosen by the University’s Faculty Board on Athletics, the awards are name in honor of Byron V. Kanaley, a 1904 Notre Dame graduate who was a member of the Irish baseball team as an undergraduate. Kanaley went on to a successful banking career in Chicago and served the University as a lay trustee until his death in 1960. Other 2004 recipients were women’s golfer Shannon Byrne, men’s tennis player Luis Haddock, women’s soccer standout Vanessa Pruzinsky, and women’s volleyball player Kristen Kinder. Salas is the sixth women’s tennis player since 1990 – and third since ’99 – to win the Kanaley award, marking the most by any sport during that span.
SALAS HEADED TO CHINA WITH ITA ALL-STAR TEAM: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) was one of 10 players (five women, five men) selected by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association to represent the United States on the 2004 American Express Collegiate All-Star Team in two exhibition team matches in China June 13-21. The trip is being hosted by the Chinese Tennis Association, and the U.S. squad will be competing against teams selected by the CTA, consisting of the best young players in China, ages 17-23. The team will make stops in Hong Kong, Tianjin, and Beijing, participating in several clinics and enjoying sightseeing excursions, in addition to the exhibition matches. The other women’s players selected for the team were Zsofia Golopencza of Armstrong Atlantic State (Ga.), Amanda Johnson of Duke, Jennifer Magley of Florida, and Jennifer McGaffigan of Illinois. Princeton’s Louise Gengler will serve as the women’s coach, while tennis legend Stan Smith will be the honorary coach.
SALAS ESTABLISHING HERSELF AS ONE OF NATION’S TOP PLAYERS: Senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.), currently ranked 22nd after being a career-high 10th earlier this spring, has established herself as one of the elite players in college tennis this season. She stands 24-17 in singles, having defeated 15 ranked opponents. She has victories over #5 Amanda Johnson of Duke, #14 Jennifer McGaffigan of Illinois, #15 Luana Magnani of USC, #24 Tammy Encina of Tennessee, #29 Dianne Hollands of Arizona, #30 Dora Vastag of Indiana, #33 Alix Lacelarie of Clemson, #37 Elizabeth Exon of Michigan, #39 Megan Muth of William & Mary, #42 Jessica Rush of Northwestern, #43 Barbora Zahnova of BYU, #69 Andrea Yung of Northwestern, #79 Shana McElroy of Wisconsin, #85 Ashley Schellhas of Vanderbilt, and #110 Meg Racette of Iowa. In addition, three more of Salas’ victories were against players that were unranked at the time of the match, but now carry national rankings. She posted a victory over Wisconsin’s Katie McGaffigan (now 73rd), as well as wins vs. Exon (now 83rd) and Racette (now 110th) when they were unranked.
Last fall, she fought through qualifying to reach the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships in October and then gained entrance to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships the following month due to her runner-up result in the ITA Midwest Championships. She is just the fourth Notre Dame player ever to take part in the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam, joining Melissa Harris (’92), Wendy Crabtree (’96), Jennifer Hall (’99), and current Irish assistant Michelle Dasso (’01). When she moved up to 10th in the ITA national singles rankings, Salas joined those same four as the only Notre Dame players listed among the top 10 players in college tennis since the Irish moved up to the Division I level in 1985-86.
Salas has a career 95-42 (.691) record in singles and 84-38 (.689) mark in doubles. She is 12th on the Irish career singles victories list.
IRISH HEAD COACH: Jay Louderback is in his 15th season at Notre Dame with a 267-136 (.663) record and his 25th year as a collegiate coach with a 471-314 (.600) mark. He ranks fifth among active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories. Louderback’s Irish have finished in the national top 30 in each of the last 11 seasons, have won 11 conference titles and registered 20 or more victories five times in the last eight campaigns. Since the preseason of the 1992-93 season, Louderback’s teams have been ranked in the national top 30 in 186 of 187 sets of rankings. After taking over a program looking for its first NCAA tournament appearance, Louderback has helped Notre Dame to the NCAAs 11 times in the last 12 years, including five appearances in the round of 16 and a 1996 quarterfinal finish. Louderback, a four-time Midwest Region coach of the year, has been honored as his conference’s top coach on eight occasions, including five times in nine years in the BIG EAST. In his time at Notre Dame, Louderback’s players have earned All-America honors 13 times, won three national ITA awards, and earned 19 invitations to the NCAA singles championship and 11 to the NCAA doubles tournament. His players have dominated the University awards during Louderback’s tenure, leading all sports in both Byron V. Kanaley awards (six) and Francis Patrick O’Connor awards (five). His family was honored with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Tennis Family of the Year Award for 2002. The Arkansas City, Kan., native, and 1976 graduate of Wichita State arrived at Notre Dame prior to the 1989-90 season after coaching for seven years at his alma mater and three years (men and women) at Iowa State.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS ON TV: The 2004 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships will receive more television coverage than ever before. The women’s team final will air on a tape-delayed basis on ESPN2 on May 25 at 3 p.m. (EDT) (2 p.m. in South Bend). The Tennis Channel will provide tape-delayed coverage of the finals of the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships, slated to premiere on June 4 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. (EDT) and re-air numerous times.
SISTER ACT: For the second straight season, Notre Dame has an unprecedented two pairs of sisters on its roster in 2003-04. In 2002-03, Liz Donohue (Sioux Falls, S.D./O’Gorman H.S.) and Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) joined the Notre Dame squad as freshmen, combining with sisters Maggie Donohue and Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) to mark the first time in school history that a team featured two sets of sisters at the same time. Though Maggie Donohue graduated in ’03, the Connellys are joined this season by freshman twins Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) to give Notre Dame two sets of sisters once again. A total of six sets of sisters have earned monograms in women’s tennis, by far the most of any of the 13 Irish women’s sports.
KEEPING UP WITH NOTRE DAME TENNIS: For the fastest results of Notre Dame tennis matches, call the Notre Dame sports 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 and fans may be added to the sports information e-mail release list by contacting Bo Rottenborn at Rottenborn.2@nd.edu, or Eileen Carroll at ecarroll@nd.edu, who also can provide any information about the Irish tennis program.