Notre Dame splits weekend matches with SEC foes
STEVE KEPPEL
Sports Writer
It was a weekend of ups and downs for the Notre Dame women's tennis team as they traveled to Kentucky and Tennessee. The seventh ranked Irish continued their streak of five straight victories with a 5-2 win over Kentucky on Saturday, but lost a disappointing match to ninth-ranked Tennessee 6-1 on Sunday.
"We played awful this weekend," said senior all-American Michelle Dasso who struggled through injuries. "We played better as a whole against Kentucky and a lot worse at Tennessee."
The Irish came out on a tear against the Wildcats winning the doubles point and taking four of six singles matches. Dasso and Becky Varnum, the eighth-ranked Irish duo, defeated 44th-ranked Carolina Mayorga and Sarah Witten 8-4, while Lindsay Green and Nina Vaughan picked up the other win over Shannon Stafford and Leigh Bradwell 8-2.
After the doubles matches, the Irish built on their momentum with singles wins by Varnum, Caylan Leslie, Kimberly Guy and Nina Vaughan. Vaughan, who is currently ranked 99th in the country, had the most entertaining win of the day coming back to beat 79th Bradwell 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 at the No. 3 spot. At the No. 1 position, third-ranked All-American Dasso, who has been battling a back injury, lost a rare singles match to 77th-ranked Mayorga 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
"I wasn't 100 percent physically this weekend but there are no excuses I was very disappointed in myself," said the Irish captain. "I haven't been able to play as much to prepare for the matches. It is very frustrating, I feel like I let the team and coaches down a bit."
On Sunday, the Irish traveled to the hostile environment of Tennessee to face the ninth-ranked Volunteers. Notre Dame started off the day by dropping two doubles matches and losing the doubles point. Dasso and Varnum had the only doubles win, their 11th straight, defeating No. 45 Vilmarie Castellvi and Kim Gates 8-6.
"Losing the doubles point is always a little set back but you can't dwell on it and have to be able to take it in singles," said Dasso.
"Tennessee is a very tough place to play," said Vaughan. "The crowd is always rowdy and obnoxious and we were expecting that."
After losing the doubles point, things only got worse for the Irish as they lost all but one of the singles matches while battling injury and loud and fiery players.
Tennessee went up 2-0 with wins over Vaughan and Varnum at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, and clinched the match as No. 65 Alison Ojeda defeated Dasso in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. This marked the second straight singles loss for Dasso, who earlier set the Notre Dame record for most ever singles victories.
"We fought hard in all our matches," said Dasso, "but just got flat outplayed. They were fighters and were really loud."
"It was a tough loss, it would have been a great opportunity to beat another top 10 team but we can't dwell on it. It's time to learn from it now instead of at the end of the season, I would love to see them again in the NCAAs," said Dasso.
The loss is only the fourth this season for the Irish, who had previously won nine of their last 10. They hope to pick up the pieces next weekend as they take on Iowa at home and prepare for the rapidly approaching Big East Tournament.
"We expect to win the rest of the matches but can't take anyone too lightly. We have to expect them to play their best against us," said Dasso.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 27, 2001
