Nov. 2, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio  The Notre Dame women’s tennis team had a rough Thursday afternoon in first day action from the 2006 ITA National Indoor Championships at the Racquet Club of Columbus. The top-seeded and third-ranked Irish doubles team of Christian and Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman) lost in the first round and freshmen Colleen Rielley (Overland Park, Kan./Bishop Miege) and Cosmina Ciobanu (Brea, Calif./Troy) also dropped their respective opening round match from the singles draw.
The lone highlight from Thursday came from the doubles team of junior Brook Buck (Yukon, Okla./Oklahoma Christian School) and sophomore Kelcy Tefft (Enid, Okla./Chisolm). The duo knocked off Kristi Miller and Alison Silverio of Georgia Tech, 8-5. Buck and Tefft improved to 10-2 on the season with their fifth consecutive victory. They move into tomorrow’s quarterfinals to face Lauren Macfarlance and Nicola Slater of Florida State. Macfarlane and Slater upset the second-seeded squad of Suzi Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor of California, 8-6.
The Thompsons got off to a great start in their opening round match with Anna Sydorska and Ana Cetnik of TCU, grabbing an early 2-0 advantage, but the 24th-ranked Horned Frog team captured eight of the next nine games for an 8-3 triumph. The Thompson twins drop to 6-2 on the season, while Sydorska and Ana Cetnik improve to 9-1.
Rielley, the ITA Midwest Regional champion, dropped a three-set heartbreaker against Carole Salge of Clemson, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Rielley dropped to 12-2 on the season and saw her six-match winning streak come to an end. Ciobanu, a finalist at the ITA Midwest Regionals, came up short against third-seeded Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech, 6-3, 6-1. Ciobanu is now 10-3 this season.
The Thompsons, as well as Rielley and Ciobanu, will all have consolation matches beginning tomorrow morning.
The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships were inaugurated in 1978 for the men and 1984 for the women and recent champions and finalists include current and recent top 100 professionals Benjamin Becker (Baylor), James Blake (Harvard), Bob and Mike Bryan (Stanford), Laura Granville (Stanford), Marissa Irvin (Stanford), Kevin Kim (UCLA), Jeff Morrison (Florida) and Lisa Raymond (Florida). Big Ten legends and Grand Slam finalists Todd Martin (Northwestern) and MaliVai Washington (Michigan) are also among the past champions.
Results for the rest of the weekend’s action will be posted at www.und.com.