WOMEN'S TENNIS: No. 5 Irish lose first game to Midwestern team since 1996
By STEVE KEPPEL
Sports Writer
The 5th ranked Notre Dame women's tennis started off the weekend on a tough note Thursday with a 4-3 loss to 11th ranked Northwestern. This loss marks the first time the Irish have been defeated by a Midwest region opponent since 1996. The win by the Wildcats is the first over the Irish in the past five years.
Despite winning the doubles point and the first two singles matches, the Irish struggled with the difficult conditions in Evanston, and the Wildcats swept the final four singles matches, winning 4-3.
"It was a little disappointing because our goal was to beat all the Midwest teams," said Becky Varnum, who won in both doubles and singles.
"We knew we were going to have a battle and that it was going to be tight," said Varnum. "It was really hard to play there, it was really dark and there were a lot of problems with the calls."
But Varnum said the Irish should have overcome the conditions and the Wildcats.
"Being ranked fifth in the country we should have been able to deal with the conditions and do better and we will work on that in the future," she said.
After the disappointing result in Evanston, the Irish traveled to Columbus to take on 21st ranked Ohio State.
The Irish came out on a mission, first winning the doubles point with impressive victories at Nos. 1, 2, and 3 doubles. The seventh-ranked Irish pair of Michelle Dasso and Varnum set the pace as they took down Kristy Dascoli and Monica Rincon 8-5 for the second time this season.
After the doubles point, the Irish won four singles matches in straight sets. The Irish were led by the play of third-ranked all-American Michelle Dasso once again, as she defeated the 31st-ranked Dascoli for the second time that day.
Freshman Caylan Leslie, along with Kimberly Guy and Lindsay Green, all won impressively in straight sets to clinch the win for the Irish.
The pressure of being a top-5 team and traveling nearly every weekend has been a mental and physical burden for the Irish.
"It has been three weeks of match after match and sometimes we feel like we are just visiting at Notre Dame," said Varnum. "Ohio State was one of the last matches of the streak and we knew we just had to buckle down and play hard."
The team proves to be a very solid and close group, and they use their friendships off the court to pull together and play well on the court.
"We have always been pretty tight," said Varnum, "but this year the camaraderie is really great, we all get along so well."
The Irish this year have seen some players really step up and contribute to the team but they have all progressed quite well as an entire group.
"Dasso has been playing really well but Nina (Vaughan) and Lindsay (Green) have really stepped up and have had some really big wins at doubles for us, they are a new team and have really come a long way," said Varnum.
"One of the biggest things this year has been everyone's dedication. This year everyone is really dedicated and it is the little things individually as well as a team that are important to our success."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 6, 2001
