April 22, 2000
MIAMI, Fla. — The 29th-ranked Notre Dame men’s tennis team won the doubles point and won three singles matches to beat third-seeded St. John’s 4-0 on Saturday in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Men’s Tennis Championships at the Neil Schiff Tennis Complex in Miami, Fla. With their win, the second-seeded and defending champion Irish improve to 12-9 on the season and advance to Sunday’s championship match for the fifth time in five appearances at the event. They will meet host and top-seeded Miami in the title match for the fifth consecutive year. Notre Dame is 2-2 in those matches, winning in 1996 and 1999 and losing in 1997 and 1998.
Junior Matt Daly and sophomore Casey Smith claimed the first doubles match for the Irish with an 8-0 win over Cameron Lore and Christian Carere at No. 3 doubles. Seniors Trent Miller and Ryan Sachire won 8-4 over Jake Maxwell and Andre Vainer at No. 2 to clinch the point for Notre Dame. The No. 1 doubles match between 30th-ranked Irish sophomores Javier Taborga and Aaron Talarico and St. John’s Eric Scharf and Jaideep Shetty was abandoned at 4-4.
Miller played in his first singles match since October and in just the third dual singles match of his career on Saturday and won 6-1, 6-4 over Maxwell at No. 5 singles. Sophomore Andrew Laflin made it 3-0 when he beat Lore 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 singles, before Talarico clinched the win with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Vainer at No. 3 singles. Sachire and Smith won the first set in each of their matches before those matches were abandoned in the second sets with the outcome of the team match determined. Sophomore James Malhame also saw his No. 6 singles match stopped at 4-4 in the second set after losing the first set 6-4.
#29 NOTRE DAME 4, ST. JOHN’S 0
Singles
No. 1: #10 Ryan Sachire (ND) vs. Erik Scharf (SJ) 7-5, 1-2, abandoned
No. 2: Casey Smith (ND) vs. Jaideep Shetty (SJ) 6-3, 6-6 (3-5), abandoned
No. 3: Aaron Talarico (ND) def. Andre Vainer (SJ) 6-2, 6-3
No. 4: Andrew Laflin (ND) def. Cameron Lore (SJ) 6-0, 6-4
No. 5: Trent Miller (ND) def. Jake Maxwell (SJ) 6-1, 6-4
No. 6: James Malhame (ND) vs. Brian Scharf (SJ) 4-6, 4-4, abandoned
Doubles
No. 1: #30 Taborga/Talarico (ND) vs. Eric Scharf/Shetty (SJ) 4-4, abandoned
No. 2: Trent Miller/Sachire (ND) def. Maxwell/Vainer (SJ) 8-4
No. 3: Matt Daly/Smith (ND) def. Lore/Christian Carere (SJ) 8-0