Irish Fall to #3 Ohio State, Rebound Against UIC

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s tennis team hosted 3rd ranked Ohio State in the first match of the day. All three doubles matches would be tightly contested with the Irish having a break lead on all three courts throughout the match. But the Buckeyes would respond and win at the top spot over Che and Nefve 6-4. Fu and Malkowski would then fall at the #3 position leaving the #2 match abandoned with Irish duo Halpin and Conklin leading their opponents.

In singles, Peter Conklin would drop his match to #11 ranked JJ Tracy 6-2, 6-3 followed by Matt Che dropping his contest to Jake Van Emburgh 6-3, 6-2. Axel Nefve would get a quick first set win at the #1 spot 6-1 but would fall to top-10 player Cannon Kingsley 6-2, 6-3 in the final two sets to give the Buckeyes the 4-0 win. Addy Vashistha was pushing top-5 player Matej Vocel at the #2 singles position while Connor Fu was in a second set tiebreak against #33 James Trotter when matches were abandoned. Jean-Marc Malkowski was in a 3rd set with his opponent as well when play ended.

Notre Dame had a short turnaround as they hosted Illinois-Chicago in the nightcap match. The Irish duo of Matt Halpin and Peter Conklin would come out hot with a quick 6-0 win at #1 doubles in twenty minutes. The Irish would clinch the doubles point shortly after when Fu and Malkowski would win 6-3 at #2 doubles. The freshman tandem of Jamie Corsillo and Brian Bilsey would leave their doubles set unfinished while leading 4-3.

Needing three more points, the Irish would make quick work of the Flames as Malkowski won 6-0, 6-1 at the #4 position followed seconds later by a 6-1, 6-2 win by Jamie Corsillo at the #6 position. Freshman Brian Bilsey would clinch the victory with a win at #5 singles 6-3, 6-1. On the other side of the building, Matt Che would pickup a victory running away with a 6-3, 6-0 win to give us a simultaneous fifth point. The remaining two matches would be abandoned as the Irish ended the night with the 5-0 victory to move the overall team record to 8-4 on the season.

Up Next:

Notre Dame will kick off ACC play next weekend at home as they will host #40 Georgia Tech at 4pm on Friday, March 4th. On Sunday the 6th, they will host #44 Clemson in a noon conference contest before taking on Fordham at 5pm. This will be the first meeting between the Irish and the Fordham Rams in history. Last year, the Irish won 4-3 on the road at Georgia Tech before taking down Clemson 4-2 a couple days later.

Box Score – Match 1

#3 Ohio State 4 – #27 Notre Dame 0

Doubles

1. Vocel/Trotter(OSU) def. Che/Nefve(ND) 6-4
2. Conklin/Halpin(ND) vs. Kingsley/Tracy(OSU)  5-5, 40-15 Did Not Finish
3. Cash/Boulais(OSU) def. Fu/Malkowski (ND) 7-5

Singles

1. #10 Kingsley(OSU) def. #95 Nefve(ND) 1-6, 6-2, 6-3
2. Vashistha(ND) vs. #5 Vocel(OSU) 6-7, 3-3 Did Not Finish
3. Van Emburgh(OSU) def. Che(ND) 6-3, 6-2
4. Fu(ND) vs. #33 Trotter 5-7, 6-6 Did Not Finish
5. #11 Tracy(OSU) def. Conklin(ND) 6-2, 6-3
6. Malkowski(ND) vs. Boulais 3-6, 6-4, 0-3 Did Not Finish

Order of finish: Doubles(1, 3); Singles (5, 3, 1)

Box Score – Match 2

#27 Notre Dame 5 – Illinois-Chicago 0

Doubles

1. Conklin/Halpin(ND) def. Strandberg/Iermolov(UIC) 6-0
2. Fu/Malkowski(ND) def. Wazir/Kruzel(UIC) 6-3
3. Bilsey/Corsillo(ND) vs. D. Bank/Schwebel(UIC) 4-3 Did Not Finish

Singles

1. #95 Nefve(ND) vs. Strandberg(UIC) 6-2, 5-2 Did Not Finish
2. Che(ND) def. Schwebel(UIC) 6-3, 6-0
3. Conklin(ND) vs. Tacconi(UIC) 4-6, 4-1 Did Not Finish
4. Malkowski(ND) def. Wazir(UIC) 6-0, 6-1
5. Bilsey(ND) def. Kruzel(UIC) 6-3, 6-1
6. Corsillo(ND) def. Iermolov(UIC) 6-1, 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles(1, 2); Singles (4, 6, 3, 2)