Jan. 30, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 21st-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s tennis team (3-1) delivered a second impressive win against a top-30 team in five days, posting a 5-2 victory over #30 Wake Forest (3-1) Sunday morning in the Eck Tennis Pavilion. The Irish lost just five total games in doubles and then were victorious in four of the five straight-set singles matches. One highlight of the day was Irish rookie Brook Buck (Yukon, Okla./Oklahoma Christian School) upsetting #16 Karin Coetzee 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.
Notre Dame, which won every set in a 7-0 victory against #20 Michigan on Wednesday, got wins at Nos. 2-5 singles after dominating the doubles play.
First off the court – in a match that took less than an hour and ended before the No. 1 singles match completed even a set – was Buck, who surrendered just a pair of games against the Demon Deacon senior, a 2004 NCAA Singles Championship qualifier who has been ranked as high as 10th during her career. Buck, ranked 85th in the nation (15th among freshmen), improved to 4-1 this season against nationally-ranked players. She had defeated #37 Dora Vastag of Indiana, #93 Hala Sufi of Purdue, and #95 Elizabeth Exon of Michigan prior to Sunday, while her only loss came against #1 Cristelle Grier of Northwestern. Overall, Buck is 13-4, including 3-1 this spring at No. 2. Coetzee, a native of South Africa, was the runner-up in last fall’s ITA Southeast Championships, and she played in the main draw of both of the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam. Last season, she lost just three games in beating current Irish sophomore Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) at No. 2 singles in Wake’s home victory against Notre Dame. Buck, victorious in six of her last seven and 10 of her last 12, lost three games or fewer for the fifth time this season. Of her 27 set victories as a collegian, 13 of them have seen her opponent win one game or fewer. Coetzee was the highest-ranked player to fall to any Irish competitor since 2004 graduate Alicia Salas upended #5 Amanda Johnson of Duke on March 10, 2004.
Buck’s performance came on the heels of an equally impressive – and quick – doubles showing for Notre Dame. The Irish won the doubles point easily, allowing Wake Forest – which had won the doubles point en route to a 5-2 win against #33 Illinois on Friday – to capture just five total games. First off was the No. 3 team of senior captain Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and junior Kristina Stastny (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph’s Academy), who registered an 8-1 win against Blakeley Offutt and Alisha Talbot. The Irish team improved to 13-4 on the season and 3-1 this spring, while notching their fourth 8-1 triumph of the campaign.
Quickly after that, Buck and junior Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) completed their own 8-1 victory at No. 2, against Katie Martzolf and Danielle Schwartz. The Notre Dame team is now 14-4 this season, including 3-1 in dual-match action. It was the ninth time in 18 matches this season that Buck and Connelly have lost two games or fewer.
Notre Dame’s top doubles team, sophomore twins Christian and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.), who are the #2-ranked duo in college tennis, completed the sweep with an 8-3 win against the 33rd-ranked pair of Coetzee and Ashlee Davis at No. 1. The Thompsons are 12-2 on the season, including 8-1 vs. nationally-ranked teams. They are unbeaten in four matches this spring at No. 1.
Alex Hirsch of Wake Forest got the Deacons on the scoreboard, defeating Irish junior Liz Donohue (Sioux Falls, S.D./O’Gorman H.S.) 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 in the second singles match completed. Hirsch was ranked as high as 38th in the nation in singles last season, but she missed the fall with an injury and is currently unranked.
Lauren Connelly put the Irish within a point of victory and maintained her team lead in singles victories by defeating Schwartz 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4. She has won six in a row and boasts a 14-2 record on the season, including a team-best 4-0 this spring at No. 4. Connelly has won nine consecutive singles matches in the Eck Tennis Pavilion and holds a 22-9 career record in the facility.
For the second match in a row, it was Stastny who clinched the Irish triumph, bringing her career total of clinching singles wins to eight. She defeated Jenna Loeb 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5 to move to 12-4 on the season and 3-1 this spring. Stastny has given up eight games or fewer on eight occasions in 16 matches in 2004-05.
Soon after the outcome was determined, Christian Thompson finished a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Katie Martzolf at No. 3 singles to put the Irish up 5-1. She has won three times in four matches this spring at No. 3 and is now 21-9 in her career in indoor matches.
The final match on court was a battle between two top-80 players, which was eventually pulled out by 77th-ranked Davis of Wake. The contest was decided by a match tiebreaker, which was knotted at 8-8 when the Anderson, Ind., native won consecutive points to claim a 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 1-0 (10-8) win against 69th-ranked Catrina Thompson at the No. 1 position. The Notre Dame sophomore lost for the third time this season, with all of her defeats coming vs. nationally-ranked foes. She is now 1-3 in her career in match tiebreakers.
The Irish are 2-0 against teams that defeated them last season, after Michigan had downed Notre Dame 4-3 in the ’04 spring season opener and the Demon Deacons prevailed 7-0 in April.
Notre Dame continued its history of strong starts to the season. The Irish have now opened 3-1 or 4-0 nine times in the last 10 seasons.
Next up for Notre Dame is the longest layoff of the regular season, as the Irish will have 11 days before their next action, when they travel to #35 Harvard on Friday, Feb. 11 for a 2 p.m. (EST) match, the first-ever between the schools in women’s tennis.
#21 Notre Dame 5, #30 Wake Forest 2
Singles
No. 1: #77 Ashlee Davis (WF) def. #69 Catrina Thompson (ND) 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 2: #85 Brook Buck (ND) def. #16 Karin Coetzee (WF) 6-1, 6-1
No. 3: Christian Thompson (ND) def. Katie Martzolf (WF) 6-2, 6-2
No. 4: Lauren Connelly (ND) def. Danielle Schwartz (WF) 6-4, 6-4
No. 5: *Kristina Stastny (ND) def. Jenna Loeb (WF) 6-3, 6-1
No. 6: Alexandra Hirsch (WF) def. Liz Donohue (ND) 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish: 2, 6, 4, 5*, 3, 1
Doubles
No. 1: #2 Thompson/Thompson (ND) def. #33 Coetzee/Davis (WF) 8-3
No. 2: *Buck/L. Connelly (ND) def. Martzolf/Schwartz (WF) 8-1
No. 3: Sarah Jane Connelly/Stastny (ND) def. Blakeley Offutt/Alisha Talbot (WF) 8-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2*, 1