W Tennis

con TInued From pAGe 16

include freshman r ylie h anford playing alongside Yellayi and freshman b ojana p ozder partnered with Freeman.

s ilverio believes that these pairings have been great leadership opportunities for her upperclassmen athletes.

“This is a leadership opportunity for our upperclassmen to really help guide the freshmen with their energy and enthusiasm. That peer energy and learning is important. It has been great to see them work together so well,” s ilverio said.

The Irish have plenty of matches before the A cc c hampionships at the end of April, and s ilverio is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for her hoping to beat some of the teams we lost to and go further in the A cc and nc AA tournaments.”

A potential catalyst for the team may exist in s lovenian phenom freshman s ebastian d ominko. d ominko’s talent has impressed all that have witnessed it, from his veteran teammates to s achire, who believes his arrival will serve as a huge boost for his squad.

“You bring in a freshman that’s as good as s ebastian is, that gives you a shot in the arm. We feel like we replaced Axel [ n efve] with somebody who is at least as good,” s achire said. s achire believes d ominko will showcase a “really good season for us”, as does c onnor Fu.

“Getting s ebastian was huge for us,” Fu said. Fu will be the one serving as d ominko’s doubles partner on the n o. 1 team and is extremely excited about the pairing. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work in practice … still a pretty new team, but it’s a pretty high potential team. We’re both pretty good athletes and know how to play doubles pretty well,” Fu said.

As the Irish return their core contributors from last year along the potential emergence d ominko and sophomore Yu Zhang, they look to rebound from their mediocre 2021-22 campaign. The Irish will travel to Lexington, Kentucky for an invitational this weekend. After that comes a slate of matches against b ig Ten opponents. c onference play opens up at home against n orth c arolina on m arch 3.

Contact Adam Akan at aakan@nd.edu team. o ff to a 4-0 start, the team will be back in action this weekend at the ITA Kickoff where they will play usc in the first round. s ilverio is excited to face a difficult opponent in usc and gain more experience at the ITA Kickoff.

“We are super excited for the ITA Kickoff. We play s outhern c al in the first round, so that will be a great experience and an opportunity for us to play a p ac-12 team,” s ilverio said. “The ITA indoor is the first national team event of the season, so we are not looking any further ahead than the next match. We are definitely very excited for the kickoff.”

Contact Nate Moller

rallied. First, he returned a Kusynzki serve with a power forehand winner. o n the ensuing crucial rally, c he sprinted across the back baseline, skidding to his backhand side. Kusynzki sensed an opportunity and crashed the net, only to see c he’s skidding shot loft over his head and drop down for a 4-3 lead. c he took the lead and his serve back, where he immediately won two straight points to garner three opportunities for a set point. After Kusynzki saved a pair on his own serve, c he delivered a thundering ace to seal the first-set victory.

In the second set, c he won four straight games to go up 5-2. After suffering a break in his first opportunity to clinch the match, c he broke right back — his third break of the second set — to earn the win.

ND WOMEN’S TENNiS

“What our seniors did in c onnor Fu and m att c he winning in straight sets and beating two quality opponents who had beaten them previously in their careers … that’s what leaders do,” s achire said. “ r eally proud of those guys for stepping up and getting it done.

“Today, I was trying to share energy a lot. I was yelling to the other side a lot,” Fu added. “[ c he] was a bit more composed with himself. b ut people give off energy different ways, and it’s our job to do that for our team.”

The Irish would trail again after seeing defeats on the third and sixth courts.

Graduate student Aditya vashistha was up early, holding and breaking for a 2-0 lead. h owever, he was broken in his efforts to garner a big-time advantage, and he struggled to regain the momentum. h e was broken three times in the first set and ultimately lost, 4-6, 3-6. It was his first singles loss of the season. Freshman n oah b ecker fell to 2-2 on the season with a 3-6, 5-7 loss on c ourt n o. 6.

That left the match to be decided by the first and fifth courts, both with newcomers to the Irish lineup battling it out. o n the top court, freshman s ebastian d ominko dominated the first set, earning a break while up 2-1 to garner a convincing lead and win 6-3. h owever, in the second set, it was d ominko who was broken, going down 4-1. h owever, the freshman battled back to win three straight games, on two holds and a break. When the match went to tiebreak, d ominko had little issue in setting down his foe, 7-2, to win 6-3, 7-6. A vicious slicing forehand from the lefty ended the tiebreak.

“ h e’s obviously a great player and competitor,” s achire said of his s lovenian freshman. “ h e played against a really good opponent and stepped up big time at the end of that match and set the table for Yu [Zhang] to close it out.”

Zhang, a sophomore who didn’t crack the singles lineup last year, suffered early breaks in both sets but maintained an unbeaten record on the year to secure the Irish win. h e also won a tiebreaker in his first set, winning the first five points of the game to claim the first set. h e also punctuated the victory with a powerful ace, winning the tiebreak 7-1. That gave the Irish a 3-0 record in tiebreaks during singles play.

“What it comes down to is clarity and confidence in what you do in the court. You’ve been playing an entire set. You kind of have a feel for what your opponent is going to do. It comes down to who executes the best. Those are all pressurepacked points,” s achire noted. “The better player typically is the one who can come through in those big moments. Those guys executed really well in the tiebreakers.” Zhang went down early in the second set as well, but a late break gave him a chance to serve for the victory. h e made no mistake, losing just one of the ensuing service points to claim the win on the fifth court. h e improved to 4-0 on the season.

“I was proud of how we fought. We need to do a better job of holding our serve. Zhang got broken in the first game of the first and second set. You do that and you’re looking uphill the entire set. It’s tough and I’m super proud of the fight, the battle.” s achire commented. “We’re clearly not clicking on all cylinders right now, but nobody is. We’ll be playing our best tennis as the season goes on … this is where you learn, where you grow, where you build confidence. s uper proud to win our first 4-3 match of the season, and it’s a match that we can look back on the rest of the way.”

Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu