Men's Tennis: Men split weekend matches in dual meet
By: RACHEL BIBER
Sports Writer
Starting the season with hopes of a spotless dual-match record, the seventh-ranked Notre Dame men's tennis team lost that goal by losing to No. 32 Minnesota. The Irish recovered to defeat No. 68 William and Mary to improve to 3-1 on the season.
Knowing the battle against Minnesota on Friday would be tough, the Irish felt the pain of the 4-3 loss to the Gophers. After rallying from a 3-1 deficit, Notre Dame nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback before finally being defeated.
"It was a bitter pill to swallow," Irish head coach Bob Bayliss said. "But, they're a good team. They're going to be I think, [ranked] 10 to 15 in the country. And they're awfully tough at home. We did not play a bad match. We are disappointed, but we played really hard."
The match looked to be starting off in the favor of the Irish when the doubles pairing of Ashok Raju and James Malhame raced to an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles. The Gophers turned their play around and swept the remaining two doubles matches. They clinched the doubles point in a tenuous tiebreak in the No. 1 doubles match, as the sixth-ranked duo of Casey Smith and Javier Taborga fell to Minnesota's Harsh Mankad and Thomas Haug 9-8 (7-4).
"Doubles was extremely close," Bayliss said. "Our third team, Malhame and Raju, played great. No. 1 doubles was close. We had a number of break-point opportunities we didn't convert on.
"A lot of luck was involved. Sometimes they would hit a good shot or make a good first serve, and on several break points we hit the top of the net by an eighth of an inch, which would have made the difference in winning or losing the match, basically."
The Gophers extended the lead to 2-0 when Notre Dame's 83rd-ranked Luis Haddock-Morales fell at No. 3 singles, but Aaron Talarico closed the gap to 2-1 with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 against Minnesota's Chris Wettengel. With a loss from 95th-ranked Taborga at No. 2 and wins from Matt Scott at No. 5 and Brian Farrell at No. 6 the score was knotted at 3-3. However the Gophers won the match when Notre Dame's 88th-ranked Smith fell at No. 1 singles 7-6 (4), 6-4, to Mankad — a player ranked second in singles nationally.
Following the tough loss to Minnesota, Bayliss was worried about his team's mental focus against the Tribe of William and Mary on Saturday, and soon found his team on the verge of upset before it pulled together for a 5-2 win.
"The William and Mary match started off almost like a rout. We won the doubles point very easily, and right away we were up 3-0," said Bayliss. "They're a very young team — talented, but young. They really fought hard. There was a point when I was afraid we were going to actually lose it."
The Irish swept the doubles against the Tribe, getting wins from the pairings of Smith and Taborga, Raju and Malhame, and Talarico and Haddock-Morales at the respective Nos. 1, 2, and 3 positions. Notre Dame got straight-set victories from Taborga, Talarico and Scott in singles, while Haddock-Morales pulled off a victory in three sets. The only losses for the Irish came in three-set comeback wins for William and Mary against Farrell and Brent D'Amico.
The challenging road schedule continues for the Irish this week as they head for Durham, N.C., to battle the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils on Tuesday.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 28, 2002
