Irish end home winning streak with loss to Kentucky
By JOE LINDSLEY
Sports Writer
The Notre Dame men's tennis team entered the weekend looking to finish the season undefeated on the squad's home courts.
The Irish, 19-6, failed in that respect, but they still finished the weekend strong, closing with their best regular- season record since 1994, when they went 21-9.
Their home winning streak was halted as the No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats handed the seventh-ranked Irish a 4-1 loss at the Courtney Tennis Center. The Irish redeemed themselves on Sunday, though, defeating Ball State 4-3, without the services of three players, including No. 18 Javier Taborga.
"We got a little down [after the loss] on Saturday because it was our big match, but we all got fired up and fought well [on Sunday]," sophomore Luis Haddock-Morales said.
Both days began the same way, with the Irish posting wins in the first doubles matches. On Saturday against Kentucky, after that promising start, Notre Dame went on to lose the doubles point, as well as four of six singles matches. Against Ball State, though, the Irish earned the doubles point and won the first three singles matches, clinching victory.
Taborga could not play on Sunday because of NCAA playing-date restrictions. Notre was also without freshman Brent D'Amico, who was hurt while playing the Wildcats and junior Brian Farrell, who is out for the rest of the season due to injury.
Sunday's match, though, saw Casey Smith and Ashok Raju, replacing Smith's usual partner Taborga, defeat Ball State's Kevin Burnett and Jason Pressel, 8-5. It was the Irish duo's first time playing together.
After their victory and a loss by seniors James Malhame and Aaron Talarico, the sophomore duo of Haddock-Morales and Matt Scott gave the Irish the doubles point for the first time in four matches with their 8-4 triumph against Klint Knable and Andrew Seni.
Although the duo of Taborga and Smith is ranked fourth nationally, the rest of the Irish doubles pairs, whose make-up has varied over the past weeks, continue to be a concern for the team, even after the win against unranked Ball State.
"We have the tools, but we need to put it together," Haddock-Morales said.
Sunday's victory was secured for Notre Dame by the singles triumphs of Scott, ranked 79th nationally, senior Andrew Laflin and Haddock Morales.
All three defeated their opponent in straight sets.
"The score was four to three, but the four points we won, we won quickly," Haddock-Morales said.
After Notre Dame had secured victory against Ball State, the Irish suffered three post-clinching losses by No. 87 Smith, Talarico and Malhame.
Bayliss called the loss to Kentucky a bad day, saying that he could not analyze what went wrong with his players, because everything theoretically should have gone well for the Irish.
"Every now and then, not often, we'll have a match where a number of plays don't have a good day," Bayliss said. "Andrew Laflin played exceptionally well [on Saturday]. Matt Scott, after a slow start, really regrouped well. None of the other players really had a good day."
The Irish hope their win against the Cardinals on Sunday will help propel them into the Big East Championships, which begin on Friday. Notre Dame is expected to receive the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 15, 2002
