SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 46 Notre Dame women’s tennis team ended the regular season with 5-2 victory at home over DePaul on Sunday. It marked a winning sendoff for the program’s three seniors: Akari Matsuno, Bojana Pozder and Rylie Hanford.
With the victory, the Fighting Irish improved to 16-8 overall. Furthermore, they made the Eck Tennis Pavilion a hard place for visiting teams to escape with a win, going 13-2 at home.
Notre Dame got off to a 1-0 start after winning the doubles point. Matsuno & Van Zyl won on court three, 6-1, in less than 30 minutes. Matsuno/Van Zyl are now 7-2 as a pair this spring.
That was followed later by ND’s ranked pair of No. 41 Molnar & Pozder clinching on court one, 6-4. Molnar/Pozder close out the regular season 7-5 in doubles dual matches and 17-9 overall.
Worth noting that Hanford & Rawles on court two were up 5-3.
In singles play, Rylie Hanford put the exclamation point on her Senior Day with a swift 6-1, 6-3 victory on court five over Clara Nilsson. Hanford improved to 9-6 in dual singles this spring.
Then, Jessica Kovalcik made it 3-0 Irish, following right behind her with a 6-1, 6-1, win on court six over Helin Alvarez.
Another senior got a nice Eck Pavilion send-off today by playing the role of clincher. Bojana Pozder defeated Yasemin Pehlivan on court three, 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.
The match was ultimately played out with DePaul earning its two points on courts one and two, each in straight sets.
Lastly, freshman Sophia Holod closed out her first dual regular season with a huge bounce back after a first-set loss. After going down 5-7, Holod was absolutely dominant, taking it 6-1, 6-0.
Looking back at the spring dual season, Holod won a team-best 14 dual singles victories, going 14-6 this spring. She was 4-5 in ACC play, tying both Matsuno and Molnar for the most on the team in that category. Speaking of Matsuno and Molnar, they both finished with double-digit dual wins as well, going 10-5 and 11-6, respectively.
Freshman Jessica Kovalcik went an impressive 13-1 in dual matches, with a 3-1 mark in league play. She heads into the ACC Tournament on a three-match win streak.
Up next, the Irish will await their ACC Tournament seeding, which will take place in Cary, North Carolina, from April 14-19.
#46 Notre Dame (16-8) – 5 | DePaul (10-10) – 2
DOUBLES – 3, 1
1. #41 Molnar/Pozder (ND) vs. Smith/Nilsson (DEP), 6-4
2. Rawles/Hanford (ND) vs. Cochran/Stula (DEP), 5-3, unfinished
3. Matsuno/Van Zyl (ND) def. Alvarez/Sechi (DEP), 6-1
SINGLES – 5, 6, 3, 1, 4, 2
1. Sasha Stula (DEP) def. #63 Bianca Molnar (ND), 7-6(7), 6-4
2. Hannah Smith (DEP) def. Akari Matsuno (ND), 7-5, 7-6(3)
3. Bojana Pozder (ND) def. Yasemin Pehlivan (DEP), 6-2, 2-6, 6-0
4. Sophia Holod (ND) def. Roberta Sechi (DEP), 5-7, 6-1, 6-0
5. Rylie Hanford (ND) def. Clara Nilsson (DEP), 6-1, 6-3
6. Jessica Kovalcik (ND) def. Helin Alvarez (DEP), 6-1, 6-1
— ND —