ROME, Ga. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team found themselves in a battle with Florida Sate in their first match of the ACC tournament held at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College Thursday morning.
Playing in the first match of the day, Notre Dame would come out with great energy in the doubles. The Seminoles would take the top court by a 6-3 score as the first court to finish. But Connor Fu and Peter Conklin at #3 doubles and Axel Nefve and Matthew Che at #2 doubles would both find themselves at match points in their respective matches at the same time. The third court would finish first and then the doubles point would be secured by the #73 ranked team in the country to give the Fighting Irish the 1-0 lead heading in to singles.
Jean-Marc Malkowski picked up a quick straight set victory at the #5 position against Youcef Rihane 6-3, 6-3. This is Malkowski’s fourth win in his last five outings with all those wins being against ACC opponents.
Fu couldn’t quite get enough going to overcome Sebastian Arcila at the #4 position and fell 6-3, 6-2 as the Seminoles got the first point on the board. Shortly after though, Che would extend the Notre Dame lead with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Richard Thongoana at #3 singles in a match where Che would not be broken once.
The next two matches would go the way of Florida State with wins at #6 and then #2 singles. Those results would knot the match at 3-3 with all eyes turning to the top court and a rematch of their encounter in the spring where #58 ranked Axel Nefve would battle #57 ranked Loris Pourroy. After dropping the opening set, Nefve, who is playing his first match in five weeks after suffering an ankle sprain at Duke, would respond and take a commanding second set. In the third, the top players would exchange breaks in the fifth and sixth games with no real separation coming until the final game of the match where Pourroy would break for a second time in the set and clinch the 4-3 win for Florida State.
Up Next:
The Irish will prepare for the NCAA tournament which will begin the weekend of May 6th-8th. They will await the selection show on Monday the 2nd which will tell where they will go and who they will play in the opening round of the tournament.
Box Score
#32 Florida State 4 – #35 Notre Dame 3
Doubles
- #89 Silagy/Karpenschief def. Halpin/Malkowski(ND) 6-3
- #73 Che/Nefve(ND) def. Pourroy/Petrovic(FSU) 6-3
- Conklin/Fu(ND) def. Rihane/Bulte(FSU) 6-3
Singles
- #58 Pourroy(FSU) def. #57 Nefve(ND) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
- Petrovic(FSU) def. #119 Vashistha(ND) 6-4, 6-3
- Che(ND) def. Thongoana(FSU) 6-3, 6-2
- Arcila(FSU) def. Fu(ND) 6-3, 6-2
- Malkowski(ND) def. Rihane(FSU) 6-3, 6-3
- Karpenschief(FSU def. Conklin(ND) 7-6, 6-1
Order of finish: Doubles(1, 3, 2); Singles (5, 4, 3, 6, 2, 1)