holy cross, notre dame tennis perform well against conference opponents

By THOMAS ZWILLER sports Writer

April 1 is a time for practical jokes that are often never funny, at least to the person being pranked. And as many people around the country were yelling out “April Fools,” the holy cross college tennis teams were not joking around as they began conference play.

The no. 18 women’s squad started its conference season against the saint Ambrose University Fighting bees, though the bees failed to put up much of a fight falling 4-0. Individual match results have not been posted as of sunday night.

The women have won back-toback matches for the first time this year, improving their record to 6-6 overall with a 1-0 start to conference play. Their next conference match is scheduled for April 11 at the eck Tennis Pavilion as they host olivet nazarene historically, the women have struggled against olivet, losing both matches they played against the Tigers last season by a combined 8-1. The Tigers went 6-0 in conference play last season before falling short in the ccAc championship to cardinal stritch.

(0-5). The match will begin at 1 p.m.

For the saints, the contest is a chance to see how they measure up against one of the historically better conference opponents. The match could have seeding implications in the conference tournament, which could help the saints take a significant step toward the team’s goal of winning a conference title.

The no. 16 men’s team also hosted conference foe st. Ambrose and also blew them out, winning 4-0. Individual match results have not been posted as of sunday night.

Thanks to their dominant win over saint Ambrose, the saints have improved to 6-2 (1-0) on the year and have won their last four games. The men will look to keep that winning streak alive when they host olivet (1-5) on Tuesday, April 11. on the other side of the tricampus, the no. 22 notre dame women’s team had an excellent outing, as it knocked off Louisville by a score of 5-2

The women won the doubles competition 2-1, with senior Page Freeman and sophomore maria olivia castedo winning by a narrow score of 7-5. The other winning duo was sophomore carrie beckman and freshman bojana Pozder, who won 6-3.

Junior Yashna Yellayi and freshman rylie hanford were the only pair to lose to the cardinals in a close loss of 7-6.

In singles play, notre dame continued its domination, winning the competition 4-2. The result gave the Irish their first back-to-back wins since late February, when they defeated then-no. 29 clemson and chicago state. staying at notre dame, the men’s tennis team had a busy weekend, playing both boston college and butler on sunday. sunday’s match was a big one for the teams’ sophomores, who helped seal the Irish victory. sophomores Yu Zhang and low scoring.

The top-25 team is now 13-7 on the year and has moved within one game of .500 in Acc play (45). The women will look to get back to even at Florida state on April 6.

In their second game of the day, the men took down butler by a final score of 4-3. The Irish won the second and third doubles matches 6-2 and 6-3, with the first game ending as a dnF.

The doubles matches earned notre dame a critical point, which it would wind up needing down the stretch.

Jameson corsillo both won their games in two sets each.

It was the upperclassmen who struggled for notre dame. Graduate student Addy vashistha and senior connor Fu both came up short, losing 6-4, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-2, respectively. match three went the distance, but junior Jean-marc malkowski lost the third set 5-7.

While the game was closer than doubles play suggested, the Irish did what they needed, going 2-0 on sunday.

Thanks to their wins against butler and bc (6-1), the men have a record of 12-11 (2-7 in the Acc). Their 2-7 mark currently has them in the lower third of the Acc standings behind Georgia Tech.

The men’s tennis team will resume conference play on April 7 at clemson.

“It’s tough. I mean, it’s becoming a running joke. We host this thing, and it doesn’t matter the date, the conditions have seemed to be pretty poor,” hickey said. “The biggest thing is that it impacts the spacing. We’ve gotta tighten things down — you can’t make big passes. I think [it’s] just probably an indicator of the couple of times we lost today. You’ve gotta make smart decisions, you might be able to get an offload away in traffic, but today you’ve got the wind factoring in as well. It just requires you to be a little bit tighter and a little bit more cautious with your play.”

Indiana University took home the qualifying bracket crown with a 19-7 victory over notre dame college (cleveland, ohio) in the title game. Fighting Irish rugby’s hopes still remain alive for a bid to the 32-team national championship tournament at the end of the month. The Irish need a strong performance at the big Ten rugby championships in order to qualify. notre dame will host the championships on April 15.

Irish top Illinois to open pool play

In their first match of pool play, the Irish defeated big Ten foe Illinois 24-14. Trailing at the end of the first half, notre dame rode a strong second half to win its first match of pool play.

The match was played to a stalemate until late in the first half when the Illini got the game’s first try. After a botched Illini line-out, junior nolan opalski had the ball fall into his hands. The carlsbad, california, native was able to break free from the Irish defense, grounding the ball over the try line with 1:40 left in the first half. Illinois converted the kick for an

Contact

Thomas Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu

extra two points and led 7-0. but the Irish responded as time dwindled in the first half. sophomore Andrew Packard broke through at midfield and raced up the right side of the pitch, scoring a try with just fifteen seconds remaining in the half. Although senior James Warren was unable to convert the kick, the Irish were on the board. Illinois led 7-5 at halftime.

d ame that found itself sitting pretty early on, jumping out to a 5-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The i rish led by multiple goals almost the entire contest, going up 3-1 5:38 in on a goal by graduate midfielder

Syracuse

a dobson goal stretched the lead to 8-2 shortly after, the irish looked to be in total command.

but syracuse came into the game riding a three-game winning streak and was not willing to let the irish pull away without a fight. after being stymied by the notre dame defense for more than 20 minutes, the orange scored five of the final six first-half goals. They entered the halftime break trailing 9-7, having quickly turned an apparent blowout into a tightly-contested game.

despite the orange’s strong finish to the first half, it was notre dame who came out hot to start the third quarter. Gray scored his second of the day less than 30 mary Kelly doherty and leading by at least two the rest of the way. o ther than a four-goal flurry early in the third, the i rish prevented the Tar heels from gaining momentum, as north c arolina only scored consecutive goals one other time in the game. That was late in the fourth quarter, with the i rish already in the driver’s seat. seconds into the half. Then, sophomore attacker chris Kavanagh, the irish’s leading scorer, put his first in the back of the net after a longer-than-usual wait. in a crucial moment, the irish remained focused and delivered one of their best extended game closed as a 24-14 irish win.

Just as they did in the second quarter, though, the orange had an answer, this time in the form of five consecutive scores. The fourth quarter began with the teams knotted at 11-11, and a goal from syracuse’s cole Kirst gave the orange their first lead of the game with just 13 minutes remaining. notre dame, just one week removed from being undefeated and ranked first nationally, was suddenly in serious danger of dropping its second straight and starting acc play with an 0-2 record.

Three notre dame players notched hat tricks on the day. s enior attacker madison a hern led the way with five goals, while c homa and junior midfielder Kelly denes had three apiece. e ight different players scored for the i rish and helped them to outshoot north c arolina 23-19. When the Tar heels did have chances, junior goaltender Lilly c allahan stretches of play all season. The catalyst for notre dame’s big run was sophomore faceoff specialist Will Lynch. Faceoffs have been an area of inconsistency for the irish all season, but Lynch was dominant against syracuse. he was 23-33 on faceoffs in the game and began the fourth quarter with seven straight wins that helped propel notre dame into the lead. eight different irish players scored goals in the final quarter of play. Two came from chris Kavanagh, and Gray and dobson added one each, giving all three players hat tricks along with Taylor, who led notre dame with four goals.

With the irish leading 14-12 midway through the period and looking to pull away, Pat Kavanagh found graduate student attacker Griffin Westlin on the left side of came through when the i rish needed her. c allahan made seven saves in the i rish victory.

The win is an especially timely one for the i rish, whose next game is against another top-ten opponent: no. 7 boston c ollege. The game marks the end of a season-long threegame home stand for the i rish. it won’t be easy for the i rish to knock off another of the the field, and Westlin put a bullet into the syracuse goal. That assist was no. 111 for Kavanagh, making him the all-time assists leader at notre dame. he would not linger on that total for long, as his third assist of the game came minutes later when he linked up with younger brother chris Kavanagh to put the irish ahead 17-12. notre dame scored its ninth straight when junior midfielder carter Parlette created space with a nifty pass fake beforew putting a bouncing shot past the syracuse goalie. That score, the irish’s last, was the first of Parlette’s career. it also put notre dame past the 20-goal mark in syracuse’s Jma Wireless dome for the first time in program history. after having trailed in the fourth quarter, the irish left new York as victors by a score of 20-12. country’s best teams. but having the experience and knowledge that they can take down a top-ten team should give the i rish not just a better chance of beating the e agles but of getting to face more great teams in a deep ncaa Tournament run.

Contact Andrew Mcguinness at amcguinn@nd.edu

They now turn their attention to no. 4 duke, whom they will host on saturday. The blue devils (101, 3-0 acc) come into south bend playing at a higher level than nearly any other team in the country. after falling to Jacksonville on the road in February, duke has won eight straight games, including a road victory against no. 1 virginia on Friday. With the cavaliers and no. 2 maryland having lost over the weekend, the notre dameduke matchup will almost certainly feature a battle of the top two teams in the nation. Fresh off of their dominant closing stretch against syracuse, the irish will look to carry that momentum into what will be one of their most difficult tests of the season.

Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu notre dame ran away with the match in the second half, scoring three consecutive tries to stun the oft-disorganized illini. sophomore Patrick mcKenzie scored early in the half, taking it all the way from midfield and diving underneath the crossbar for the try. senior christian opperman knocked through the conversion kick. opperman then took things into his own hands, scoring two tries in short succession to put the irish ahead 22-7. a late try by illini sophomore Patrick devereaux could not pull his team close. The adrian began the match by applying pressure to the irish defense right away. notre dame held up adrian on the goal line in the first thirty seconds of the match but could not poach possession from the bulldogs. eventually, sophomore apenisa sailo found space in behind the notre dame defense, breaking a tackle and diving beneath the crossbar for the try. The conversion kick went through, and adrian led 7-0 a minute into the match. adrian’s defense remained stout as the match wore on, frustrating notre dame. eventually, adrian took a penalty inside the irish 22 that led to an irish try, as Packard picked up the ball and ran the length of the field to the try line. Warren made the conversion kick, tying the game at 7-7. That score held at the end of the first half. Two minutes into the second half, sophomore Tajay myles had a try to put adrian out in front yet again. myles made a quick stutter-step at midfield and broke free of the irish defense, rumbling downhill with notre dame’s Packard in close pursuit. Packard made contact with myles on the try line but couldn’t haul him down. a successful conversion kick solidified the score at 14-7. notre dame pressed for the tying — and potentially winning — score as time dwindled down. With just 55 seconds remaining, good irish tackling forced a forward pass against adrian. That set up a scrum for notre dame inside the adrian 22-meter line, but the scrum collapsed for notre dame, turning possession over to adrian. all was not lost yet for notre dame, though, as the irish forced an adrian penalty just outside the try line. With two seconds remaining and a chance to win the match, notre dame made another critical mistake: a knock-on while picking up the ball. it was a sour way to end a close match for the irish.

Late push comes up short against Adrian in their second match of the day, the irish met adrian to determine the Pool c champion. in a lowscoring match with a chaotic finish, adrian escaped with a 14-12 win.

The irish responded in short order, though. With precise passing in its own half, notre dame switched the field and set up an opperman. he ran from midfield, shook off a tackle inside the 22-meter line and grounded the ball on the right side for a try. The adrian defense made it difficult for opperman to get to the center of the try line, though, which set up a difficult conversion kick for opperman in an attempt to tie the game. Kicking into the howling wind with extra distance, opperman’s conversion fell well short. adrian still clung to a twopoint lead.

Irish fall to Aquinas in quarterfinal

The close loss to adrian seeded notre dame second in Pool c, matching the irish against Pool d champion aquinas in the quarterfinals. despite leading by a try at the half, the irish could not hold on to beat the saints.

notre dame controlled possession for much of the first half but could not break through the aquinas defense. The irish were more unsettled to start this match than in the previous two. There were a number of dropped passes and knock-ons that thwarted scoring opportunities early in the half.

The irish jitters faded away quickly after junior dylan ryan scored the first try of the match. notre dame set up the score from a penalty kick at midfield, which was put into touch well inside the aquinas 22-meter line. With sharp passing off the line-out, senior sean moran offloaded to the onrushing ryan, who muscled his way across the try line. Though opperman’s conversion kick missed wide right, the irish still held a 5-0 lead.

The game continued at a somewhat sloppy pace in the second half, and neither team cracked the scoreboard. That changed with under three minutes to play, when the saints forced an irish turnover on the left wing. a shovel pass found speedy freshman archie Fleming flying down the touchline. Whizzing by all the irish defenders, Fleming cut to the middle of the pitch and grounded the ball across the try line directly behind the uprights. With the conversion kick an easy one, the saints took a 7-5 lead with 1:50 to play.

The irish again pushed hard for the tying score but were thwarted by turnovers in the final minute of play. after trailing for 12:10 of the 14-minute contest, aquinas held on for the 7-5 win and advanced to the semifinals against notre dame college.

Indiana wins qualification bracket title; Kentucky wins

Open in their final consolation game, the irish topped marian 22-19. The win pulled notre dame to an even two wins and two losses on the day.

in the qualifiers bracket championship, indiana pushed past adrian 24-5 and then beat notre dame college for the title. adrian ended up taking home bronze with a 24-14 defeat of aquinas. in the open division, the Fighting irish b team posted a 1-3 record. The irish were shut out by Wisconsin, 29-0, to open pool play. notre dame then suffered a 33-17 loss to West virginia before bouncing back with a 17-10 win over Trine. in its final consolation match, notre dame b dropped a 20-14 contest to minnesota. Kentucky finished as the open bracket champion over in-state neighbor Louisville. Wisconsin beat Washington university for bronze.

Contact Ryan Murphy at rmurph22@nd.edu