Mens tennis: Young players perform well in season opener
By: JOE LINDSLEY
Sports Writer
Playing its first matches without graduated All-Americans Javier Taborga and Casey Smith the Notre Dame mens tennis team dominated at the Fall Tribe Classic at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Notre Dame defeated opponents from Virginia, William and Mary and a Minnesota squad that was one of the few teams to prevail over the Irish last season.
The Irish finished the tournament strong Sunday, with every player winning his singles match against players from Minnesota and Virginia. Minnesota was playing without two of its starters.
Junior Luis Haddock, playing at the No. 1 position for the Irish, pulled a 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-1) upset over Gopher Aleksey Zharinov, who was ranked 51st in the nation.
The incoming freshmen also performed well for the Irish, who need to fill the void after graduation so many starters.
Freshman Eric Langenkamp defeated Minnesota's Nate McLain, 6-3, 6-2, and Patrick Buchanan won over Virginia's Dillon Walker, also by a score of 6-3, 6-2.
"We were all happy with the way the freshmen played," sophomore Brent D'Amico said. "I'm excited about that. We're definitely going to need help from the younger guys on the team."
Last year as a freshman, D'Amico was one of the younger players who often came through for the team.
"I expected to have a lot of fun," Langenkamp said of his thoughts before the tournament. "I expected all the matches to be really hard and the competition to be tough. And all those expectations came true."
Although the Irish dominated over the weekend, they know there are areas in which they have to improve. Their doubles play, which sometimes hurt the team last season, continues to figure prominently on that list, despite the ultimately successful weekend.
"We need to continue to work on doubles, although we actually did really well in doubles," D'Amico said. "[We have to] continue to work on competitiveness so we can become the best team we possibly can."
As of yet, the team has no specific goals besides that — becoming the best that they can early on in the season.
"We're still fighting, we're still in it," Lagenkamp said. "We want to compete with every college out there."
This was Notre Dame's first tournament with new assistant coach Todd Doebler, who came to South Bend from Pepperdine, where he helped his team to the NCAA tournament.
The Irish will be at home for the first and only time of the fall season starting Sept. 19 and continuing through the weekend as they host the Tom Fallon Invitational. Notre Dame will take the courts against Harvard, Purdue, William and Mary and Ball State.
All Sports Stories for Monday, September 16, 2002
