Irish Defeat Washington Before Falling at #5 Kentucky at ITA Kickoff

LEXINGTON, Ky. – On Friday, the University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team began play as it took on Washington in the opening round of ITA Kickoff Weekend in Lexington, Kentucky. The #1 team of Sebastian Dominko and Connor Fu would come out blistering and run away with a  6-1 win. After #2 doubles went the way of the Huskies, #3 doubles became the focal point and would decide who got the doubles point.

Matt Halpin and Evan Lee would get broken early in the set but when they had to have it, would break back at 4-5 to even the match. After a couple holds of serve, a tiebreak would decide the winner. The Irish duo would save two match points before winning on a volley from Lee that would hit the net twice and dribble over.

With the Boone Tennis Center at the University of Kentucky only having 4 courts, the top four singles spots would take the court first and Dominko would win comfortably with a 6-2, 6-1 win to extend the lead to 2-0 overall. Matt Che and Addy Vashistha would lost at #2 and #3 singles respectively in straight sets and tie up the match for a short time before Fu won his match at the  #4 slot 6-1, 7-6.

Yu Zhang stepped on court in his normal #5 position while Jamie Corsillo would get the nod at #6. Both players would win their first sets and it was a race to see who would clinch the match since the Irish only needed one more point. Corsillo would hit the finish line first with his 6-1, 6-4 win and send Notre Dame into the next round.

On Saturday afternoon, with a bid to ITA National Indoors on the line, Notre Dame would line up against the fifth-ranked team in the country and NCAA runner-up from 2022, University of Kentucky. A quick loss at #3 doubles for the Irish would soon be evened up as Dominko and Fu won 6-3 and their fourth consecutive doubles victory. Che and Zhang would fight back from an early break down and force a tiebreak in which they would take the lead and never look back, winning 7-1 in the breaker.

The Irish once again led 1-0 as singles play began and the first four matches on the courts would be very competitive through the first sets. But the Wildcats would take victories at spots #2, #3 and #4 to build a lead overall. Dominko would win the first set 6-2 and find himself two points from winning the match on a couple occasions but his opponent, Liam Draxl, would survive the second set in a tiebreaker. Ultimately, the Irish freshman fell in a 3rd set to his opponent, who was formerly #1 in ITA Singles Rankings, and give Kentucky the 4-1 win.

Up Next:

Notre Dame will have next weekend off from competition before returning to the courts on February 11th where they will take on Illinois. The match will be played in Champaign at 7pm ET that day as the only match of the weekend.

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Notre Dame 4 – Washington 2

Doubles

1. Dominko/Fu(ND) def. Bouchelaghem/Zharyn(UW) 6-1
2. Pearson/Suko(UW) def. Che/Zhang(ND) 6-4
3. Halpin/Lee(ND) def. Hendrikx/Lin(UW) 7-6(8)

Order of Finish(1, 2, 3)

Singles

1. Dominko(ND) def. Lin(UW) 6-2, 6-1
2. Zharyn(UW) def. Che(ND) 6-2, 6-2
3. Bouchelaghem(UW) def. Vashistha(ND) 6-4, 6-1
4. Fu(ND) def. Yamaguchi(UW) 6-1, 7-6(7)
5. Zhang(ND) vs. Suko(UW) 7-5, 4-2 DNF
6. Corsillo(ND) def. Hendrikx(UW) 6-1, 6-4

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

Notre Dame 1 – Kentucky 4

Doubles

1. Dominko/Fu (ND) def. Draxl/Ayeni (UK) 6-3
2. Che/Zhang (ND) def. Weekes/Leblanc (UK) 7-6(1)
3. Lapadat/Baadi (UK) def. Halpin/Lee (ND) 6-1

Order of Finish(3, 1, 2)

Singles

1. Drax l(UK) def. Dominko (ND) 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-1
2. Ayeni (UK) def. Che (ND) 6-4, 6-4
3. #17 Lapadat (UK) def. Vashistha (ND) 6-2, 6-4
4. Baadi (UK) def. Fu (ND) 7-6(5), 6-2
5. Zhang (ND) vs. Cosnet (UK) 2-3 DNF
6. Corsillo (ND) vs. Mercer (UK) 0-5 DNF

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