i rish edge out broncos, 4-3

By AIDAN THOMAS sports editor

The n otre d ame men’s tennis team continued a strong start to the year, improving to 4-1 with a tight 4-3 victory over Western m ichigan. The b roncos have been one of the nation’s strongest mid-major programs for years, winning the mac Tournament the last four years it’s been played.

“Western m ichigan is a really good team. h ats off to them. They’ve had this same core of players for two or three years now,” i rish head coach r yan s achire said. “They have a bunch of fifth year seniors, true seniors. They’ve played a lot of tennis matches, they’ve won a lot. They’re dominant in the mac . We knew this was going to be a tough match. We knew they were very good and a team that is capable of getting an atlarge bid into the ncaa Tournament.”

The i rish did not get off to an ideal start, dropping the doubles point in an extremely close battle. Freshman s ebastian d ominko and senior c onnor Fu won at the top court, 6-4, but the i rish couldn’t bring home a victory at either of the lower courts. The b roncos won on the third court in a tiebreak to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

“ it was a really strong opponent. The doubles point didn’t go our way,” s achire commented. “ it was really tight, really close, but you get down 1-0, it’s tough to win four singles.” h owever, the i rish got the energy boost they needed from their veteran corps. Playing next to each other on c ourts 2 and 4 at e ck Tennis Pavilion, Fu and fellow senior m atthew c he delivered straight-set victories to vault the i rish into the lead. Fu put forth a dominant effort, collecting a couple of breaks and riding the momentum to a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

“ h ad to come out pretty fast. Losing the doubles point is always tough, but you have to bring the energy for your teammates. i think i did that pretty well in the first set,” Fu noted. “c ame out pretty strong in the second set as well. h e had a good push back, but ultimately closed it out which was big for us.” c he’s win was more adventurous, but he still brought home a big point for the i rish, defeating Peter Kuszynski. a fter going down a break early, the senior broke back to take a 4-3 lead. With the match tied 5-5, c he ensured it would at least go to a tiebreak with a clean sweep to hold for a 6-5 lead. h is blistering cross-court forehand winner sealed the game. i n a tiebreak, c he produced three unforced errors early to go down 3-2. h owever, down a point and with Kusynzki serving, c he