INDIANAPOLIS – The Notre Dame women’s tennis team is officially dancing. The NCAA announced the 2026 NCAA Tournament field on Monday, with the Fighting Irish making their 28th overall appearance. It also marks the fourth straight year under Head Coach Alison Silverio.
The Irish will head to Columbus, where the 3-seed Ohio State will host the opening two rounds. To kick things off, #34 Notre Dame (18-9) will battle #26 Arizona (20-9) in the first round. If successful, the Irish will play the winner of #5 Ohio State (23-4) and Youngstown State (12-11).
Notre Dame delivered some key wins last week at the ACC Tournament, right when they needed it the most to bolster the NCAA resume. After knocking off Boston College and Clemson, the Irish jumped from 44th to 34th in the national ITA rankings.
In fact, the Blue & Gold have won six of their last eight. They enter postseason play with an 18-9 record.
Notre Dame is led by its All-ACC honoree #74 Bianca Molnar, who tallied a 19-11 record and an appearance at the NCAA Singles Championship. The sophomore produced 10 wins at the No. 1 singles position and four victories against ranked opponents.
She is flanked by four more Irish who reached double-digit singles wins in dual play: Rylie Hanford (10-8), Sophia Holod (15-8), Jessica Kovalcik (15-1) and Akari Matsuno (12-6).
Coach Silverio’s freshman class has been a standout story of the seasone season as well, and one of the major reasons the Irish are back in the Big Dance. Fellow freshmen Sophia Holod and Jessica Kovalcik tied for the most dual wins on the team with 15.
In fact, Kovalcik only registered one defeat in the spring and has recorded straight-set victories in 14 of her 15 wins.
On the doubles front, when Coach Silverio has employed the following tandems – #43 Pozder/Molnar, #68 Rawles/Hanford, Van Zyl/Matsuno – they have a combined winning percentage of 68.1%.
The top pairing of Pozder and Molnar won ACC All-Third Team honors. They are the first tandem to secure 20 wins at ND since Quinn Gleason/Monica Robinson in 2015. They are flanked by a 14-6 Hanford and Rawles pairing, plus a 9-3 Matsuno and Van Zyl.
Coach Silverio is 3-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament at Notre Dame, advancing to the second round in each of the last three seasons. The Irish have advanced at least one round in all but three occasions over their long history in the NCAA Tournament.
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