No. 13 women's tennis earns revenge, defeat No. 7 USC
Special to the Observer
Notre Dame's No. 13 women's tennis team avenged an exhibition loss by upsetting No. 7 USC 5-2 in first-round action Thursday at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center.
The Irish won the doubles point and four of six singles matches to gain a victory and advance to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
Notre Dame will face No. 4 Vanderbilt Friday at 3:30 p.m. The Commodores defeated No. 17 Northwestern in first-round action.
The Irish improve to 3-3 this season and snapped a two-match losing skid. Southern California is 2-2 after losing two straight matches. UCLA defeated the Trojans 5-2 last weekend.
Notre Dame won the doubles point with wins at the bottom two positions. Senior Nina Vaughan and sophomore Alicia Salas gained an 8-4 win at No. 3 doubles before the No. 53 ranked team of junior Katie Cunha and freshman Sarah Jane Connelly delivered an 8-6 upset of Anita Loyola and Luana Magnani, the No. 24-ranked team in the country, who had defeated Connelly and Cunha in fall action.
In singles action, Nos. 1, 3 and 5 were played first with the other three matches following. The Irish won two of three in each wave of matches. Jewel Peterson, ranked No. 13 nationally in singles, avenged a fall loss to Irish senior Becky Varnum with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 1.
Notre Dame senior Lindsey Green registered an upset of No. 91-ranked Loyola 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 singles, while Salas defeated Brymer 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5 singles. Salas has a 9-0 career singles record in dual matches and has won nine in a row overall this season, as well as 12 of her last 13 matches.
Connelly clinched the Irish win with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph at No. 6 singlesover Bernadette Bayani. After the outcome was determined, Vaughan gained a 7-6, 6-3 upset win over No. 34-ranked Magnani at No. 2, while Maureen Diaz won 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 1-0 (10-2) at No. 4.
The Irish and Trojans faced off last October in an exhibition match in the Eck Tennis Pavilion with USC gaining a 5-2 win. The Trojans won the doubles point and then gained victories at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 singles.
met only three times in official matches, but all have come in the Team Indoor Championships over the past four years with the Trojans winning in 2000 and the Irish coming out victorious in 1999.
The Irish and Commodores will meet for the fourth time, but the third in the Team Indoors. Vanderbilt downed Notre Dame in 1997 and 1998 in this tournament, while the Irish gained a win in the 1996 Federated Insurance Court Classic.
The National Team Indoor Championships is the premier national team indoor tournament. It features 16 of the top teams in the country and has been held each year since 1988. The Irish are competing for the ninth consecutive season, finished in a fifth-place tie last year and have compiled a 12-13 overall record, highlighted by quarterfinal appearances in 1994 and 2001. Fourteen of the 16 teams are ranked in the top 21 of the current ITA national rankings and the field includes six of the top seven teams nationally.
All Sports Stories for Friday, February 8, 2002
