Irish Win Thriller Over Clemson Before Falling to Georgia Tech

SOUTH BEND, Ind. –  The weekend started with a Friday night thriller for the University Notre Dame men’s tennis team as they would claim a 4-3 victory at #58 ranked Clemson. But the shorthanded Fighting Irish couldn’t do it again on Sunday as they fell to Georgia Tech 4-0 to end the weekend.

The Irish would come out hot in doubles getting early leads and never looking back. Connor Fu and Jean-Marc Malkowski broke in the opening game of the match and raced to a 6-1 victory on the top court. Yu Zhang and Evan Lee would get up 3-0 before serving it out for a 6-4 win and the doubles point.

Singles play would be back and forth but the first point on the board came from Fu who won the #2 singles spot with a 6-2, 6-2 win to extend the Notre Dame lead to 2-0. After the Tigers would take the top position in the lineup, Jamie Corsillo put another tally on the board with a come from behind win at #5 singles. After dropping the first set 6-1, he would come roaring back to take the next two 6-0, 6-1 and secure his first career ACC singles victory and put the Irish within one of the team victory. But Clemson would make another push with wins at #6 and then #4 singles to even up the contest at 3-3 and put all the focus on the #3 court where Malkowski was  the man of the evening.

After losing the first set 6-3, Malkowski found himself serving at 3-4 in the second set and down 0-40. But the Irish junior dug out a big hold of serve with four consecutive points to even the set at 4-4. He then continued that momentum to break his Clemson foe for the first time of the match immediately following. After dropping serve trying to hold out the first time, he would respond with another break and then a hold to take the second set 7-5. In the final set, Clemson took the early lead and got up 4-1 putting the Tigers within a couple games of the win. But Malkowski would storm back to win the next five games of the match, breaking twice and serving out the win with a powerful first serve that his opponent returned long, securing the 4-3 win for the Irish.

On Easter Sunday, Notre Dame would return to the courts, this time against Georgia Tech. The #3 doubles team of Lee and Zhang would run out of time to finish up the lead they built before the Yellow Jackets claimed the wins at #1 and #2 to take the point and leave their match abandoned.

The teams would split the first sets evenly with Notre Dame taking first set wins at #4, #5 and #6 singles while Georgia Tech would secure the opening sets of the top three positions in the lineup. Zhang dug himself a big hole but rattled off five straight games to win his set 7-5. Corsillo and Noah Becker won opening sets as well with matching 6-3 scores within minutes of each other. With the Yellow Jackets building a 3-0 lead in the match with wins at the top two spots in the lineup, the Irish would need to win the remaining matches. But the hero from Friday night, Malkowski, couldn’t quite get over the hump in the second set and fell in a tiebreak to give Georgia Tech the win.

Up Next:

The Irish will travel to Louisville for a mid-week match against the #40 ranked Cardinals. First serve will be Thursday, April 13th at 3:45 p.m. at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. This match will be the last one of the regular season before postseason play begins at the ACC Championships the following week.

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#54 Notre Dame 4  – #58 Clemson 3

Doubles

1. Fu/Malkowski(ND) def. Azuma/Whitaker(CLEM) 6-1
2. Halpin/Becker(ND) vs. Plans Gonzalez/Smith(CLEM) 4-5 DNF
3. Lee/Zhang(ND) def. M. Pitts/Stinchcomb(CLEM) 6-4

Order of Finish(1, 3)

Singles

1. Azuma(CLEM) def. Vashistha(ND) 6-2, 6-2
2. Fu(ND) def. Plans Gonzalez(CLEM) 6-2, 6-2
3. Malkowski(ND) def. M. Pitts(CLEM) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
4. Whitaker(CLEM) def. Zhang(ND) 7-5, 6-4
5. Corsillo(ND) def. Dica(CLEM) 1-6, 6-0, 6-1
6. Stinchcomb(CLEM) def. Becker(ND) 6-4, 6-4

Order of Finish(2, 1, 5, 6, 4, 3)

#54 Notre Dame 0 – Georgia Tech 4

Doubles

1. Martin/Chopra(GT) def. Fu/Malkowski(ND) 6-3
2. McDaniel/McKinney(GT) def. Halpin/Becker(ND) 6-4
3. Lee/Zhang(ND) vs. Sachdev/Shokry(GT) 5-4 DNF

Order of Finish(1, 2)

Singles

1. #7 Martin(GT) def. Vashistha(ND) 6-2, 6-4
2. #71 McDaneil(GT) def. Fu(ND) 6-2, 6-2
3. #90 Chopra(GT) def. Malkowski(ND)6-1, 7-6(6)
4. Zhang(ND) vs. Sachdev(GT) 7-5, 4-5 DNF
5. Corsillo(ND) vs. Shokry(GT) 6-3, 4-6, 2-1 DNF
6. Becker(ND) vs. Bauer(GT) 6-3, 2-6, 1-2 DNF

Order of Finish(2, 1, 3)