September 18, 1998

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s tennis team opened its 1998 fall season at the Eck Classic at the Courtney Tennis Center. Freshmen Becky Varnum and Lindsey Green made impressive debuts with two wins each to advance to the semifinals of the Blue Flight singles. Notre Dame’s three doubles teams all won their first matches. Matches continue at 9:00 a.m., at the Courtney Tennis Center both Saturday and Sunday.

Varnum rolled by Jacki Farr from Illinois-Chicago 6-3, 6-0 and downed Julia Sapozhnikova of Marquette 6-3, 6-2. Greene beat Western Michigan’s Cyra Malik 6-4, 6-1 and Northwestern’s Laura Guignon 6-2, 6-3. Freshman Nina Vaughan won her first match 6-4, 6-3 over Illinois State Zana Friganovic before falling 6-1, 6-3 to Stacy Schapiro of Illinois. Sophomore Kim Guy beat Michigan’s Allison Sinclair 6-3, 6-0 but lost to Illinois’ Simone King 6-3, 6-3.

Juniors Sarah Scaringe and Kelly Zalinski each lost first round matches. Freshman Berica Day won 6-3, 7-5 in her first Gold Flight match but dropped a 6-3, 6-4 decision to Evansville’s Brandee Fox in the second round.

In the Blue Flight double draw, Guy and Vaughan teamed for an 8-5 win over Illinois State’s Naoko Moore and Friganovic. Green and Scaringe won 8-4 over Farr and Serena Xie of Illinois-Chicago. Varnum and Zalinski edged Western Michigan’s Diana Dimitrescu and Cyra Malik 8-6.