Irish make second consecutive trip to NCAA tournament
Andrew Soukup
Associate Sports Editor
Sixteen teams arrived in Georgia. Only one will leave with a championship.
For Notre Dame's women's tennis team, this is the last stop.
The Irish landed in Georgia late Monday night to begin preparations for the NCAA Championships, and Irish head coach Jay Louderback feels the Irish are poised to make a strong run through the tournament.
"I think we're playing the best we can right now," he said. "We're easily playing our best tennis of the year."
This is the second consecutive year that Notre Dame has advanced to the Sweet 16. But of the five times Notre Dame has qualified for the national finals, they've lost in the quarterfinals each time.
This time around, No. 13 seeded Notre Dame faces a familiar foe in No. 4 seeded Florida. Last year, the Gators knocked the Irish out of the championships, but Louderback expects a different ending this time around.
"Playing Florida last year helped us a lot," he said. "They lost quite a few people, and so they're not as good. By the same token, we're a lot better.
"It's gonna be a good match."
As she has all season, Michelle Dasso will lead the Irish at No. 1 singles. Dasso, the winningest singles player in Notre Dame history, has also qualified for the NCAA singles competition and teamed up with Becky Varnum in for the doubles championship.
The Irish lineup will not change — Varnum will still compete at No. 2 singles and Nina Vaughan will play No. 3. Caylan Leslie, Lindsey Green, and Kimberly Guy will round out the singles lineup.
The forecast calls for 80-degree weather with high humidity levels. Louderback doesn't expect the weather to affect the Irish.
The Irish, who practiced for two hours Tuesday and Wednesday, faced Florida Thursday afternoon. Results were not available by press time.
In order to get to the finals, the Irish beat Eastern Michigan and Tulane last weekend on Notre Dame's campus.
The Irish began their tournament run with a 4-0 victory over Eastern Michigan. They handily won the doubles point as Dasso and Varnum won 8-1 and Green and Vaughan captured their match 8-2. When their match was abandoned, Katie Cunha and Guy were winning 6-2.
In the singles match, the No. 8 Irish quickly picked up the other three points. Guy was the first to win, as she won her No. 6 match 6-1, 6-0. Green gave the Irish a 3-0 lead with her 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 5 singles, and Caylan Leslie clinched the victory for Notre Dame with a 6-4, 6-1 win.
While Notre Dame was dismantling Eastern Michigan, No.16 Texas A&M was upset 4-2 by Tulane. The cold and windy conditions contributed to Texas A&M's early exit.
"I was very surprised," Louderback said. "A&M is a really good team, and I thought they would give us some trouble."
In the second round, Notre Dame didn't have any trouble blowing by Tulane as they won 4-0 to advance to the Sweet 16.
Dasso and Varnum started the Irish off with an 8-1 win at No. 1 doubles. But the Irish fell behind 6-4 in the other two matches before Green and Vaughan rallied to win 9-7 at No. 3 doubles, clinching the doubles point for the Irish.
In singles, Guy crushed Anneli Axsater 6-0, 6-1, while Vaughan won 6-0, 6-3 at No. 3 singles and Green won her match 6-1, 6-2 to move the Irish into the Sweet 16.
Louderback believed the two wins gave the Irish a strong advantage heading into the NCAA finals. The Irish hadn't played a match since they won the Big East Championship three weeks ago.
"We're used to playing two matches during the season, have three or four days off, and then go at it again," he said. "We definitely have some momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament."
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 18, 2001
