Feb. 4, 2005
At 5-5 in the third set of the last match remaining, Texas junior Callum Beale held serve and then broke Irish senior co-captain Brent D’Amico (Castle Rock, Colo./St. Stephen’s Episcopal School [TX]) at No. 1 to hand the 34th-ranked Longhorns (2-0) a 4-3 victory over the 25th-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team (6-1) Friday in the Eck Tennis Pavilion. Beale capped of a Longhorn rally that saw them come back from a 3-1 deficit to register a 4-3 victory against the Irish for the sixth consecutive meeting. Notre Dame will return to action on Sunday, playing host to #9 Duke at Noon (EST) in the Eck Pavilion.
Beale, ranked 93rd in the nation, broke serve in the fourth game of the decisive set, but D’Amico, playing No. 1 for the first time in his career, struck back immediately with a service break of his own. The serves of both players held up until D’Amico – a 2001 graduate of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas – used an overhead and a forehand into the net from Beale to go up 15-30 with the Australian serving at 5-5. A big serve from Beale evened the score, and the Longhorn then sliced a backhand down the line for a passing-shot winner to garner a game point, which saw the Irish captain’s return find the net.
Serving to get into a third-set tiebreaker, D’Amico watched a forehand sail long on the first point of the 12th game, but consecutive errors from Beale – one on a backhand lob that fell just deep and another on a forehand into the net – put the Irish senior up 30-15. On the ensuing point, D’Amico chased down a drop shot from the Australian and had lined up a backhand passing shot down the line only to see his slice fail to clear the top of the net. The Notre Dame captain, who started the spring at No. 3 singles and moved up to No. 2 last weekend before making his latest jump in the lineup, got another short ball to his backhand at 30-30, but again his effort – this one a cross-court approach shot – found the net. Beale took advantage of his first match point, ripping a forehand crosscourt and past a charging D’Amico to complete a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 triumph. A semifinalist at last fall’s ITA South Central Championships, he improved to 13-5 in his first season of American collegiate tennis after competing at the University of South Australia in each of the last two years. D’Amico had a five-match winning streak snapped and lost with the team scored tied 3-3 for the second time in as many opportunities in his career. He had not lost a three-set match in more than a year, having won five straight since a defeat against Duke’s Jason Zimmerman on Feb. 1, 2004, at No. 3.
After dropping the doubles point for just the second time this spring, Notre Dame claimed straight-set victories in each of the three fastest singles matches to move within a single point of victory. Freshman Travis Helgeson – whose brother Brett Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley West H.S.) has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Irish next season – finally finished off a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 2 against Notre Dame’s 78th-ranked sophomore Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School), rallying from a 3-0 second-set deficit to do so. The Longhorn rookie, ranked 69th in the nation, improved to 12-3 this season, while Bass tasted a three-match losing streak for the first time as a collegian.
Another Texas rookie, Milan Mihailovic of Serbia, knotted the score by coming back for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win against Irish sophomore Irackli Akhvlediani (Vienna, Austria/Vienna International School) at No. 5. The Longhorn broke serve twice in the decisive set to take a 5-2 lead, but he could not serve out the match in his first attempt, as the native of the former Soviet republic of Georgia broke serve and then held to prolong the match. Mihailovic would eventually hold and put the fate of the contest into the hands of the No. 1 players, while improving to 13-4. Akhvlediani blew a one-set lead and dropped a tight third set for the second match in a row, after losing 7-5 in the third against Derek Porter of North Carolina last weekend. Friday was his first time playing in a three-set contest with the team outcome still undecided.
Notre Dame junior Patrick Buchanan (Fullerton, Calif./Servite H.S.) was off the court first in singles, with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Luis Diaz Barriga of Mexico at No. 6. He leads the Irish in singles victories, boasting a 21-3 mark on the season. Last weekend, Buchanan became the fastest Notre Dame player ever to reach 20 singles wins in a campaign, doing it on Jan. 29. He has won 43 of 49 sets this season, including holding his opponent to one game or fewer on 17 occasions – while nearly registering eighth shutout set of the year on Friday after winning the first five games of the second frame. Buchanan is 13-2 indoors this season and holds a 5-1 mark this spring at Nos. 5 and 6. He has won 29 consecutive matches when taking the opening set.
Sophomore Barry King (Dublin, Ireland/Gonzaga College), ranked 112th, gave Notre Dame the lead with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 upset of #53 Roger Gubser at No. 3. The Irishman is 12-5 this season, including 3-1 against top-60 players. He defeated both #26 Jeff Kader of William & Mary and #50 Chris Martin of Illinois in fall play. Gubser fell to 17-6 on the season, with two of his defeats coming against teammates and all against nationally-ranked foes.
Rookie Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) put the Irish within a point of victory, breaking in the final game of the match for a 7-5, 6-4 win against Hubert Chodkiewicz at No. 4. The Irish freshman is now 6-0 this spring at No. 4 and 18-4 as a collegian. Parbhu is unbeaten in five matches in the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
Texas registered 8-5 victories at the Nos. 1 and 3 positions to claim the match’s initial point. At the top spot, it was Beale and Gubser downing D’Amico and sophomore Ryan Keckley (South Bend, Ind./St. Jospeh’s H.S.). The Longhorn pair now holds a 7-1 record as a team.
Chodkiewicz and Helgeson clinched the doubles point with a win at No. 3 against Bass and King. In the final match on court, Parbhu and junior Eric Langenkamp (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale H.S.) continued their strong play at No. 2, defeating Diaz Barriga and Garrett Snyder in a tiebreaker 9-8 (7-2). The Irish team is now 8-2 on the season and 5-1 this spring at No. 2, including an upset of the 32nd-ranked team in the nation. The Notre Dame junior is now 14-8 in doubles and holds the team lead in wins in partnered play.
The match continued Texas’ penchant for beating the Irish in tight matches. In 11 all-time meetings, the Longhorns have lost only twice, and seven of those nine victories came by 4-3 scores – including five straight matches from 1996-2000 before the series was abandoned for four years.
It was a contest between two of the six winningest programs in college tennis. The Longhorns registered their 1,316th all-time victory – by far the most by any Division I school – while just last weekend Notre Dame became the sixth team to join the 1,000-win club.
#34 Texas 4, #25 Notre Dame 3
Singles
No. 1: *#93 Callum Beale (UT) def. Brent D’Amico (ND) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
No. 2: #69 Travis Helgeson (UT) def. #78 Stephen Bass (ND) 7-5, 6-4
No. 3: #112 Barry King (ND) def. #53 Roger Gubser (UT) 7-6 (7-4), 6-2
No. 4: Sheeva Parbhu (ND) def. Hubert Chodkiewicz (UT) 7-5, 6-4
No. 5: Milan Mihailovic (UT) def. Irackli Akhvlediani (ND) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 6: Patrick Buchanan (ND) def. Luis Diaz Barriga (UT) 6-4, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6, 3, 4, 2, 5, 1*
Doubles
No. 1: Beale/Gubser (UT) def. D’Amico/Keckley (ND) 8-5
No. 2: Eric Langenkamp/Parbhu (ND) def. Diaz Barriga/Garrett Snyder (UT) 9-8 (7-2)
No. 3: *Chodkiewicz/Helgeson (UT) def. S. Bass/King (ND) 8-5
Order of Finish: 1, 3*, 2