SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In their lone match of the weekend, the Notre Dame men’s tennis team would jump out to a quick 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point and never look back. They would sweep the defending Mid-American Conference champions 7-0 without dropping a set all night.
Malkowski and Fu would win 6-3 at the #3 doubles position before the #1 tandem of Nefve and Che would clinch the point with a 6-4 victory.
Connor Fu would be the first off the singles court with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Honnappa in a rematch of their encounter in the NCAA tournament last year. Axel Nefve would be next off the court with a commanding 6-1, 6-4 victory which set up Jean-Marc Malkowski to clinch the team victory at the #6 spot. The rest of the matches would be played out and Che, Vashistha and Conklin would all follow suit with straight set victories over their respective Broncos opponents.
Up Next:
Notre Dame will have the rest of the weekend off from competition but will then play a mid-week match at Michigan on Thursday at 6pm. Then next weekend the Irish will host the top ranked team in the country in Ohio State along with Illinois-Chicago after on Sunday the 27th.
Box Score
Notre Dame 7 – Western Michigan 0
Doubles
- Che/Nefve(ND) def. Honnappa/Lohse(WMU) 6-4
- Conklin/Halpin(ND) vs. Kuszynski/Arzhankin(WMU) 5-5 Did Not Finish
- Fu/Malkowski(ND) def. Caballer/Schlueter(WMU) 6-3
Singles
- #81 Nefve(ND) def. Kuszynski(WMU) 6-1, 6-4
- Vashistha(ND) def. Arzhankin(WMU) 6-2, 6-3
- Che(ND) def. Lohse(WMU) 6-3, 6-4
- Fu(ND) def. Honnappa(WMU) 6-2, 6-3
- Conklin(ND) def. George(WMU) 6-3, 7-6(3)
- Malkowski(ND) def. Boone(WMU) 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles(3, 1); Singles (4, 1, 6, 3, 2, 5)